


Ark Descending

by warmfluffypastries



Category: The 100 (TV), The 100 Series - Kass Morgan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Camp Jaha | Arkadia, F/M, Pregnancy, dropship camp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27966569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warmfluffypastries/pseuds/warmfluffypastries
Summary: What happens if the Ark didn't come down at the end of season 1? Clarke, Bellamy, and Company are forced to survive on their own through all of the Mount Weather stuff. Miraculously they do, and become the 13th Clan, nearly 3 years later they are not only surviving, but thriving. And then their home in the sky falls to earth.We are disregarding the entirety of S3-7 for this piece. Parts of S2 happened, and all but the last episode of S1 work with this work.
Relationships: Abby Griffin/Marcus Kane, Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Monty Green/Harper McIntyre, Octavia Blake/Lincoln
Comments: 83
Kudos: 288





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying to post everyday during the month of December. I've been working on this for a long time, and it is still not finished...hopefully this forces me to actually finish it.

It’s astounding how easily they fell into their relationship, they’d already spent most nights together, falling asleep discussing plans and how best to handle problems. Those nights turned into cuddling and cuddling turned into making out and making out turned into sex. She’d briefly feared that that’s all it was. They were great partners, a united front, for not only their own people but those of the other clans as well, but did he feel the same.

Not one to beat around the bush, she’d confronted him one morning as they were getting ready for their days. He was going to be laying out their plans for their new village, still within the shadow of the dropship and she was headed to Mt. Weather to check on the progress of the 140 remaining Mountain people and she couldn’t shake the thought that maybe he was looking forward to having a few days without her.

“What are we doing?” she’d asked, having laced up her boots. Watching as he scraped gently at his cheek with a knife.

“Looks like you're about to head out,” he glances toward her briefly before focusing on the broken piece of glass hanging against the wall. “I’m finishing up this beard.”

“I meant _us_ , what are _we_ doing? Are we just keeping each other's beds warm until something better comes along? Is it just because we keep being given the same room?” her hands floundered helplessly in front of her as she tried to explain her question. He’d full on laughed at her, a deep booming sound that had her frowning and crossing her arms against her breasts. “I don’t know what you think is so funny.”

“You are, Princess,” he laughed again, swiping at the little bit of soap, he’d been gifted by a Delphi man, from his cheek. “I figured it was pretty obvious, but if I have to spell it out for you...” he trailed off wrapping her up in his bare arms, bringing her folded ones against his bare chest.

“Please,” she was still frowning as he grinned like a mad man.

“I love you Clarke,” his entire expression softened, “and you love me,” he added. “So, what we're doing here is building a foundation for the rest of our lives. I’m going to ask you to marry me one day in the not _too_ distant future, and then we are going to have so many babies--”

“So many, huh?” She couldn’t quite hide the smile slowly forming on her face.

“So many,” he promised, putting his forehead to hers, “little girls with blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes...and baby boys so fair skinned they’ll have to hide inside during the warm months.”

“Oh ha ha,” she lightly tapped at his shoulder, his arms still wrapped around her, squeezing her a little more toward him. “You know the likelihood of their genetics working out that way is--” He kissed her, cutting off whatever she was going to say next, “I mean, your dark chair is going to be--” he cut her off again, joining her when she began laughing into their kiss, “you love me, huh?”

“So much,” he promised.

“I love you too,” she replied.

“I know,” he nodded, “I just told you that.”

And just like that, they were on the path to a great future together. Which brought them here, nearly three years later. They’ve converted the dropship into a headquarters of sorts, the hole Murphy blew in the side of it acting as a window, allowing a breeze to pass through as they meet with other clan ambassadors. Bellamy has, over the years, developed a love for woodworking and they now have a table surrounded by high backed chairs, all finished with a red velvet cushioned seat and back, scavenged from an old abandoned building found in Trikru territory. Several clan leaders had remarked on the beauty and comfort when meeting with Skaikru.

Clarke and Bellamy, ambassadors for Skaikru, along with Indra and Lincoln ambassadors for Trikru are just putting the finishing touches on a trade deal that will get Skaikru several furs as they head into winter. Clarke is leaning back in her seat, hand running up and down over her rounded middle. Bellamy can see the way it quivers every now and then, the baby inside moving around. They’ve found their little bean does that often when he talks, and he’s been the one leading the discussions for this meeting.

“It has been a great honor to continue to trade with you,” Indra remarks as Bellamy finishes the final lines of their agreement. Most of the clans still think it is weird that Skaikru keeps written records, but Clarke had felt it necessary and so they had always done it.

“The honor is ours Indra,” Clarke smiles, happy to be getting one more thing out of the way before the baby arrives.

“Your skaigoufa is will be here soon, no?” she asks, taking the rolled parchment Bellamy hands to her as they all stand.

“Very soon,” Bellamy agrees, helping Clarke up with a gentle hand to her arm and back. She’s had trouble getting up for several weeks now, and even with the extra equipment from Mt. Weather and all of Clarke’s medical knowledge they aren’t positive on her due date.

Clarke is going to remark further, that they don’t have a definitive date, but when Harper had checked earlier that morning she had already dilated a centimeter. Before she can speak though, a loud booming can be heard through the air, and Indra is already rushing toward the ladder down to the ground level. Clarke heads for the makeshift window, hoping it is facing the correct direction, Bellamy joining her and she vaguely recognizes Lincoln’s movements as he heads down after Indra.

Seeing a clear sky, Clarke turns back to the ladder and motions for Bellamy to go ahead. She’s long learned that he is unwilling to compromise on her safety. He’d even tried to convince Miller, Monty and Jasper to help him take the table and chairs apart to bring them down to the first floor when he realized the issue with her going up and down to their meeting room. He’s careful not to touch her as she lowers herself down the ladder, but doesn’t put his hands at his own sides until her feet are both firmly planted on the floor.

“Last time we heard a sound like that, our lands were invaded,” Indra rose a mighty brow at the two sky people in front of her, “shall we be preparing for war once again?”

“Maybe we find out who it is first?” Bellamy suggests, putting a hand to the small of Clarke’s back he pushes them through the old parachute flap still at the mouth of their dropship.

Everyone in the Skaikru camp is looking skyward; large pieces of metal are falling and burning up as they make reentry into the earth’s atmosphere. “That’s the Ark!” Monty shouts, jogging across the clearing from the greenhouse, he and several delinquents from Farm Station, as well as a handful of Mt. Weather survivors had been working on and perfecting for the last year and a half.

“Why are they bringing the whole thing down?” someone shouts and Bellamy wants to echo the question but knows that Raven would have an answer for them as soon as she could.

“It must have been their only option,” Raven suggests, limping slowly towards them from her engineering shed. She and Jasper have been the major masterminds behind getting the building, all of the buildings really, up and running. “They’ve been up there with no contact for nearly 2 and a half years. We already knew they were running out of air, I’m shocked _anyone_ lasted this long.”

And then they start to see explosions as piece after piece of the Ark touches down in the  
distance, “What are the chances of them all being lost on impact?” Clarke turns to Raven. She’s long ago said a farewell to her mother, she’d been on the crashed dropship from their first few months on the ground, whomever was responsible for this, she wouldn’t be seeing her mother again.

“Pretty high, but I’m sure calculations were made before they made the decision, this had to be a somewhat viable option,” she remarks, “I’ll stock the Rover, and we’ll take it out tomorrow to see who and/or what has survived.”

“I’ll come along,” Monty agrees, “Miller can bring one of the trucks if we find any survivors, especially if they are in need of medical attention.”

“I’ll let the Commander know you are planning to make first contact,” Indra announces, already moving towards the entrance of their camp, “I assume you still plan to stay here for the next several weeks?” she directs at Lincoln.

“Octavia is planning to stay for the birth, yes,” he says to her, “We will ensure the Commander’s interests are looked after.”

“I’ll start prepping the medbay,” Clarke sighs and Bellamy grabs her hand before she can escape towards the largest of the buildings at the center of their camp.

“Let Nyko and Octavia handle it?” he asks softly, “You need to rest.”

“I’m fine,” she reminds him, “and if I rest too much more I’m going to bore myself to death.”

“Alright, but at least find a chair and sit down,” he implores, hand moving to cup her large bump...the longer it took for this baby to arrive the more anxious the entire camp grew.

“Promise,” she winks, and pushes up onto her toes to kiss his cheek before moving off, “help Raven with the Rover!” she calls over her shoulder when she can still feel his eyes on her several steps later.

“Let’s go, Blake,” Raven laughs, tugging on his arm and leading him around behind the drop ship where they’ve set up a carport which houses the Rover and two large trucks that they had moved here. All Mt. Weather survivors have been treated and cleared to return to the surface and after scrapping everything Raven deemed viable they’ve marked Mt. Weather off limits, no one wants to return there anyway.

Two hours later, Nyko approaches with two large bags of supplies and Clarke trailing behind him. “I put together two medkits,” Clarke tells Miller as Nyko jumps up into the back of the truck. “It’s mostly pressure dressings and pain killers, you remember how to make a splint right?”

“Yes, Clarke,” he tries really hard not to roll his eyes, but he gets a poke in the shoulder for his trouble anyway, “I remember, I took your crash course last month, remember?”

“I know,” she nods, “I’m just double checking, hopefully any broken bones or dislocations aren’t so bad that they can’t survive the trip back.”

“Hey we don’t know if anyone survived those falls,” Bellamy reminds her, as he steps down from the front of the truck, “don’t forget the gas sticks a little longer on this one.”

“You guys,” Miller laughs, turning away from them, “stop hovering. We can handle this, you two need to focus on that.” He points at her, and Clarke quickly places a hand against the swell, as if to sooth the child within.

“Actually,” Clarke speaks, having made the decision for him while she’d been busy helping Nyko and Octavia pack up the medkits, “Bellamy is going with you.”

“No, I’m not,” he shakes his head, adamantly, sending her a pointed look, “you could literally have a baby any minute.”

“No I can’t,” she laughs, “I have dilated 1 cm with zero efacement,” Miller shudders and Raven scoffs having coming half way from behind the Rover and quickly retreating back that way, “Harper, Nyko and I all agreed that there is still plenty of time--”

“I didn’t agree that you should send your beloved away,” Nyko pipes up, climbing down from the truck and turning back toward the medical facility.

“One of our leaders should be the first one to make contact with any survivors,” Clarke continues on, “I am _obviously_ going to stay here...So you need to go.”

“No way,” he returns, silently thanking anyone listening that at the very least she was aware that _she_ shouldn’t be making the journey, “Octavia and Lincoln can go in our stead.”

“Bellamy,” she sighs, “Lincoln is not one of us, we’ll be lucky if no one tries to shoot him on sight, and Octavia is nothing more than a minor criminal to them, she was one of note at the time of her arrest, but I guarantee you, they didn’t see her any different than any of the others.”

“ _I’m_ not even a minor criminal,” he reminds her, “Last any of them saw of me, I was shooting the Chancellor and sneaking aboard the drop-ship.”

“Jaha and the council pardoned you for that,” she points out, it has been years since they lost contact, but the council at the time, knew that she and Bellamy were the de facto leaders already, “I have to believe that if they made the decision to come down than they will be expecting us to still be leading, and anyone who has taken charge at this point is going to be someone who knows that.”

“It’s been almost 3 years since we had contact with them,” Bellamy sighs, “do you really think they are going to remember one radio call about my fate?”

“Yes,” she smirks, “because literally not a single one of them wanted to pardon you,” she pulls his hands to her hip and reaches up to grab his neck and pull him toward her, “but I, with my miraculous charismatic speech, got them to change their minds, starting with Jaha himself.”

“Okay, you may have a point,” he gives her a conciliatory nod, not allowing her to pull him down towards her, still intent on making his point, “but am I really going to leave you here alone this close to your delivery?”

“Do I look like I’m alone here?” she questions him, glancing at the society they’ve built, once again bustling in the afternoon light now that the sky has mostly cleared.

“Clarke---” he lets out her name as a whine...and she pulls forcefully against the back of his neck, not letting him fight her this time, forcing his face down close to hers, “you keep the radio with you at all times?” he questions, eyes boring into hers, “And you check-in, regularly?”

“Of course,” she nods, “same goes for you though.”

“We leave at first light,” he calls to whomever is still within earshot, not breaking their embrace, “Raven, make sure the vehicles are fully charged and radios are in good working order.”

“Yes, boss,” she mocks him, moving away from the Rover, after ensuring the panels are, in fact, charging correctly.

“Do you think there is actually anyone from the Ark alive out there?” Clarke asks, quietly, laying in their bed later that night. She’s so uncomfortable these days, that sleep often eludes her, and now it is compounded by the day’s events. Bellamy feels bad about it, and tries his best to help her get comfortable, but he can only do so much, at the moment he’s acting as a pillow and heating pad all in one. His bare chest is snuggled up to her back, his body heat helping to ease some of her aches. His left bicep is pillowing her head, her pillow being used to prop up her belly, and his right hand is cradling her middle as well.

“I don’t know,” he mumbles, sleepily into her shoulder, “I think it would be really amazing for some of the kids if their parents are alive out there somewhere.”

“It would be,” she agrees, “but even if we get that for some of the camp, we’ll never get our parents back.”

“But you still have hope?” he questions, finally understanding where she’s going, “That your Mom maybe wasn’t on the dropship that crashed?”

“No,” she sighed, “I made my peace with her death, you know that,” she shrugs, “it’s just...it would be nice to have her around right now, you know?”

“Yeah,” he agrees, and she lays her hand over his, to bring it a little higher up, and the baby is kicking away just under her ribs, “she been driving you crazy?”

“Not today,” she shakes her head, “and we don’t know that it’s a girl.”

“We _could_ know though,” he reminds her. And he’s right, they have the ultrasound technology from Mt. Weather, but the only ones capable of reading it are herself and a couple of the people from the Mountain, and she’s done her absolute best to avoid looking.

“Look, how far we’ve come, do you really want to ruin it now?” she laughs, her whole belly bounces with the emotion, and he smiles into her shoulder, when the baby gives a couple of hard kicks.

“Okay,” he sighs, all dramatically, before yawning.

“Go to sleep,” she finally urges, “you have a big day tomorrow.”

“It’s just like any other day on the ground,” he reminds her, he often goes outside their walls to track down supplies and make trade deals. It used to be something they did together, but she’s been staying within the walls more since she started to show, both of them feeling as if it might draw unwanted attention. 

“Still…” she urges, bringing her hand up to tangle in his curls, “get some sleep...for me?”

“Okay,” he agrees, placing a kiss against her temple, before closing his eyes, and letting sleep pull him under.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I'm still going strong on day 9, here is the next part of this work, I'm still working on this, but I have a few more chapters done, already.

He rises early the next morning, knowing their journey will not be a quick one, even if the distance can quickly be covered with the rover. It’s dark still, and he doesn’t want to risk waking her, not knowing when she finally dropped into sleep, so he gets into their connected bathroom with the door closed before reaching out to tap the push light installed near their sink, its solar panel sitting at just the right angle in their window. 

He quickly washes his face and hands, still impressed with how much Raven and Monty were able to engineer with scraps from Mt. Weather. They have a semblance of running water and are able to fill the tub in their home without having to haul water back and forth from the river. They can even have warm water if they take their baths during the day, the water being heated by the sun as it runs through the pipes on the exterior of their homes. 

He finishes quickly, brushes his teeth with the wooden brush and grounder-made paste, before trading his thin linen pants for his sturdier cargos and a threadbare tee that needs a few holes mended, but for now will do. He switches the light off, waits a moment for his eyes to readjust and then heads back toward their bed.

“Keep sleeping,” he murmurs when her eyes start to flutter, the light kiss against her forehead obviously not as light as he intended. “We’re heading out now, I’ll check-in in about an hour.”

“Mmkay,” she mumbles sleepily, smacking her lips adorably.

“Hopefully, we can make it back tonight, if not I’ll bring the Rover back first thing tomorrow morning,” he had talked it over with Raven before turning in last night and she’s agreed that they shouldn’t be gone too long, he’s still unsure about leaving when she’s so pregnant. 

“Mmkay,” she mumbles again, and he knows that she hasn’t really heard what he’s said or else she’d be arguing.

“Take it easy today, and let people help you?” he asks, figuring he was on a roll anyway.

“Mmkay,” she sighs this time, the words barely making it past her lips before her breaths once again completely even out. Smiling to himself, he places another kiss against her forehead before moving to drop one against the roundness of her middle and their child within. He installed a high shelf by the door the day she told him she was pregnant, their guns sit there well out of reach of tiny hands. He grabs his on his way out, double checking the safety before tucking it into his waistband.

The morning air is brisk as Spring begins to roll into the area, and he takes a deep cleansing breath before moving to the carport area where the rover is parked. “Load ‘em up,” he calls approaching the rear of the dropship. Raven and Miller are already there, each dressed in tactical vests taken from Mt. Weather. Guns secure at their hips and rifles neatly loaded into their respective vehicles. “Where’s Monty?” he questions, depositing his jacket in the front seat of the Rover and pulling on his own vest.

“He was dropping off Jordan to Harper at Medbay,” Miller supplies, before swinging up into the cab of the truck. Bellamy remembers that she has pulled the night shift and their son was only just now able to sleep through the night. He needed to remember to thank them, Clarke, herself, had been pulling a lot of night shifts since Jordan had been born, so she was returning the favor, but it was still worth showing appreciation.

“Lincoln’s going with you,” Octavia announces as she rounds the corner with her mate in tow. “I’m staying,” she cuts off whatever Bellamy is about to say, “I’ll watch her like a hawk, big brother,” she promises, before motioning to the truck where Lincoln has joined Miller. “Don’t let anyone shoot him?”

“I can’t even guarantee that they won't shoot _me_ ,” Bellamy snorts, “but I’ll do what I can.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Monty comes jogging around the corner, bag slung over his shoulder, before launching into the passenger side of the truck.

“It’s fine,” Bellamy promises, hopping up on the steps, once Monty has shut the door, “everything all good with Jordan and Harper?”

“Yep,” he nods, grinning, “he’s going to be talking before we know it.”

“That’s awesome!” Bellamy gives a solid pat to his shoulder before jumping down.

“Radio check,” Raven calls to Miller as Bellamy climbs into the Rover. “Octavia,” Raven nods, “make sure the radio in the drop ship stays on? Clarke should have her mobile unit too, just in case.”

“Got it,” she agrees then gives them a wave as they peel out of their parking spots and down the side road at the edge of camp speeding up as they pass through the gate entrance of their camp. Bellamy gives a wave to the two guards on duty as they pass by, watching in the side mirror to ensure they close the gates behind them.

“Eat something,” Raven tosses a couple strips of jerky at him after they’ve been driving for about twenty minutes, “if I have to hear your stomach grumble one more time…”

“Geez,” he snorts, “didn’t know I was such a disturbance to your morning,” then roughly tears at one of the thick strips of meat with his teeth. “Were you able to figure out where exactly these pieces landed?”

“It’s a pretty wide drop zone,” she shrugs, and then starts to wiggle in her seat, finally pulling some paper from her cargo pocket, “best I can tell pieces landed everywhere, the furthest being in Azgeda territory.”

“We should probably let all the clans know to be on the lookout,” he grabs the radio from the dash to make a channel wide call for anyone to be aware. Raven and Monty had worked with several people from the Mountain to put together a radio system that works across the coalition and radios had been distributed to each clan evenly.

“There were several massive pieces of flaming metal falling from the sky,” Raven retorts, “They’ve been on the lookout for almost 12 hours now.”

“Okay,” he shrugs, “I’m just giving everyone an update on the situation.”

“Bellamy?” the strong female voice crackles through the speakers of the vehicle.

“Go ahead Lexa,” he returns, she is their Commander, and as much as he hates it, he knows that her orders will have to be followed. They have only survived this long because they were made the 13th clan.

“All clan leaders have been instructed to proceed with caution at all wreckage sites,” she informs, she still uses a very formal tone with him, even though she seems to view Clarke as a friend, “Indra said you have a team heading out to the Trikru border?”

“Yes,” he speaks into the receiver, “I am leading the team now,” he glances at Raven, aware that they haven't shared a timeline with anyone else yet, “we should be back at Dropship camp by nightfall.”

Raven nods in the affirmative as they break through a clearing and Miller pulls up alongside as they cross the grassy plain. Many of the higher ranking members of Skaikru have learned to drive in this open field, so both drivers are comfortable picking up speed in the area. “Be sure to report back on negotiations.”

Bellamy rolls his eyes, he understands the hierarchy of the Coalition but sometimes he wishes they had a little more autonomy; especially in a situation like this, where they know the “enemy” they are dealing with even if the grounders don’t. He answers in the affirmative before flipping over to the dropship-specific channel, “O, you there?”

“What’s up, big brother?” crackles back to him, and he can tell that Octavia is trying not to laugh at him, they’ve barely been gone 40 minutes and the sun has just cleared the horizon, not even fully in the sky yet, “Clarke is still sleeping.”

“Good,” he lets out a relieved breath, “make sure she’s got something to eat before too much longer, okay?”

“You know that I’m desperately trying not to make fun of you right now, right?” comes back at him, and she doesn’t even try to hide the teasing lilt to her voice this time, “but I know that you are stressed and it wouldn’t help the situation, so I am going to continue to refrain.”

“Thank you,” he sighs, he understands that he sometimes stresses out the women in his life, but _damnit_ they don’t make it easy, “let me know when she wakes up?”

“I’ll have her give you a call,” she confirms and Bellamy finally puts the handset back on it’s hook, seeing the smirk Raven is trying to hold back on.

“God,” Raven laughs, not even two seconds later, “who would’ve thought that Bellamy Blake would be so whipped?”

“Hilarious,” he grumbles, and then his eyes catch sight of a quick flash, as sunlight bounces off a piece of metal a few yards ahead of them, “Looks like we’ve got something.”

“I see it,” she promises, and he leans forward in his seat to see what exactly they are seeing. “Looks like debris.” Raven pushes the rover forward, back into the trees and they continue to spot large pieces of metal dotting the forest as they travel the path carved out by use over time.

“How can there be anything left?” He asks her as they neared the edge of the tree line, “we saw so much fire falling from the sky yesterday,” but he’s already spotted several larger pieces.

“Alpha Station could definitely still be mostly intact,” Raven mumbles, trying to recognize the different sections they are passing; she’s the only one on the ground to have seen the Ark from the outside up close.

“Look up guys,” Miller’s voice carries through the tinny speaker this time and Bellamy’s eyes immediately shoot skyward as he pushes further forward to see through the windshield and past the roof and his jaw drops; as they come through the treeline into a clearing they can easily make out the remains of Alpha Station standing tall into the low hanging clouds of the early spring morning. “Is that Alpha?”

“What’s left of it,” Raven snatches up the receiver to reply, easing the Rover to a stop still several hundred yards away from the wreckage. No sooner have they stopped do they hear the telltale ping of a bullet bouncing off the hood, “Shit!” She quickly reverses the vehicle into the treeline again, narrowly missing the large truck behind them, “back it up guys!”

“What’s the plan?” Monty’s voice drifts over the speaker next, as both vehicles retreat to the safety of the trees.

“I’ll go in by foot,” Bellmay replies, already checking his pistol before reholstering it, and then checking the larger gun as well, he can feel the knife strapped to his ankle and knows it is in correct position if he needs to grab it quickly, “Hopefully, they’ll ask questions first.”

As he jumps down from the Rover, Lincoln, Miller, and Monty are also jumping down from the truck, “If you die, I’m not the one explaining it to your wife,” Miller quips.

“She’s not my wife,” Bellamy grumbles, they’ve made very sure to remind everyone that they have a grounder union, meaning words like chosen and mate were used but not husband and wife. Those were outdated words from an outdated society. 

“Whatever you want to call it,” Miller smirks, “I’m still not explaining it to her.”

“Thanks, for the vote of confidence,” he snorts, adjusting his tactical vest, more out of habit than fear or nerves it wouldn’t do its job. 

“You’ll do fine,” Lincoln, forever an optimist, places a hand against his shoulder, “these are your people.”

“We might have lived on the same Ark, but Alpha was never our people,” Raven sighs, double checking her rifle and setting up through the turret hole on the roof of the Rover, “I’ll provide cover from here.” She then disappears from view and when she pops back into view she’s already holding a handheld radio unit out to him, “maybe they’ll be open to communication.”

“Don’t shoot to kill,” he urges her and quickly hooks the radio to his waistband. Then, taking a deep breath to center himself before moving back towards the treeline. He raises his hands high to show he is not a threat, even though he has several weapons strapped on. Then he calls out for whomever could hear to not shoot.

“Who are you?” A voice calls back, and he proceeds forward, hands still raised. They’ve been busy in the 18 or so hours they’d been on the ground, he notes, the basics for a fence were already in place, and by the looks of it would be singing with electricity in no time, if it wasn’t already. It had taken the original 100 nearly a week to realize they even needed one.

“Bellamy Blake, factory station, I came to the ground with the 100,” he calls back and suddenly people are rushing to greet him, he recognizes the Ark issued guard uniforms and weapons rushing towards him, but not the men wearing them. On the other hand he easily places Marcus Kane, even with a full beard and longer hair, wearing the Chancellor’s pin and, as far as he remembers, former Councillor Abby Griffin, his first thought at the sight of her is of Clarke.

“Keep your hands raised,” one of the guards barks at him, when he starts to lower his arms, a run-in with a boar late last summer has his shoulder aching too quickly these days. The one who barks the order keeps his gun pointed at Bellamy, while the second reaches around to pat him down, pulling the pistol from his hip and then holding tight to the bigger gun, “lower your hands slowly,” the first directs and then the strap for the gun is removed from around him as well. It’s Kane that immediately reaches for the radio, quickly switching it to the off position.

“How many of you are there?” Abby questions, as the guard who patted him down, brings his hands behind his back roughly to restrain him, he’d forgotten how strong the metal cuffs of the Ark were, as they clamp a little too snuggly around his wrists.

“Fifty of the original 100 kids you sent down are still alive, plus myself and Raven Reyes,” He makes sure to keep his tone neutral, he doesn’t want anyone to make any connections between any of them, until he has some idea of their plans, but things don’t look promising at the moment, “but we haven’t lost anyone in almost 2 years. We have camp almost 15 miles from here.”

“And the vehicles you arrived in? Where did you get them?” Kane questions as they usher him into the remains of Alpha Station, miraculously having landed in a way to still be useful, Bellamy can’t help but marvel at the nearly pristine condition of the space station as they make their way to a secure room.

“Mt. Weather,” he answers easily, he knew that in order for peace to be achieved between what was left of the Ark and the Commander’s Coalition there would need to be transparency and honesty. “I’ve been sent on behalf of the Commander’s Coalition to welcome you to Earth and offer you the safety and protection of the 13 clans.” 

“Who is the Commander?” Kane questions, and the guards force him into a metal seat, at a metal table, in a state room that he’s sure once belonged to one of the higher ranking families of Alpha. He tries to see if there are any features that would point out exactly who it belonged to, but he wasn’t able to place anything specifically. His shoulder is already starting to feel the effects of his hand being trapped behind him, but he does his best to lean back against the chair and relieve some of the pressure.

“There are 12 Grounder clans here on Earth, they have survived through time...their leader is Commander Lexa kom Trikru,” He begins steadily, he wants to offer enough information for the Ark to want their protection, but not enough for them to ask too many questions, “after waging war against us, in which our technology allowed us to claim a victory despite our small numbers we were able to convince the Commander that by coming together we could defeat the Mountain, which had tormented her people for generations. We have been a part of the Coalition for nearly two and a half years, we are considered the 13th Clan. Myself and another leader, Clarke, serve as ambassadors of the Skaikru, similar to your council aboard the Ark.”

“Clarke is still alive?” Abby breaks in, having heard enough about the current political climate, Bellamy knows that dangling her daughter in front of her will at least have Abby on their side, or at least he _hopes_ so. It’s not ideally how he wants to talk to Abby for the first time about her daughter, but he has to play his cards right. He can’t be away from Clarke for too long, his gut is telling him that their baby will be joining them sooner than Clarke seems to think.

“Abby...” Kane trails off, glancing back over his shoulder at her, “I know you are anxious to find the kids, but we need to establish our safety before worrying about them. If they are still alive, they have learned to survive and are safe, we need to ensure the same.”

“Not _them_ Marcus, Clarke is _my daughter_ ,” she pleads, and Bellamy feels as though they’ve had a similar argument before, “Others have children out there as well, our people have a right to know if their kids are still alive!”

“Clarke _is_ alive,” Bellamy cuts off whatever retort Kane was getting ready to say, wanting to keep on track with the conversation so that he can get back to her as soon as possible. “She’s at the dropship camp with the majority of our people. Raven Reyes, Monty Green, Nathan Miller, and a grounder friend, Lincoln kom Trikru are waiting with our vehicles just out of sight within the trees.”

“Let’s bring them in,” one of the guards at the door turns to Kane, requesting permission, “David will be thrilled to see his son.”

“We will,” Kane holds up a hand to halt their progress, he wants to establish firm control, Bellamy recognizes the tactics, he’s dealt with enough leaders over the last three years, “but we need to establish some rules first, we are not going to just abide by some Coalition laws, I realize that you might have needed their protection and their resources, but we are here now and we are not going to just follow your lead. Just because these grounders have an agreement with a bunch of children, doesn’t mean we have to as well.”

“They stopped being children the day you sent them down here to die!” Bellamy snaps, straining briefly against his restraints, “we sacrificed so much because of the situation _YOU_ put us in… _we_ adapted, _we_ overcame, and _we_ are thriving. If you would like to join the Commander’s Coalition, she is willing to allow you to join Skaikru; however, if you do not join, you will be wiped out.”

“You come here and threaten us?” The second guard at the door, pushes inward intent on imposing his physical superiority, “You’re lucky you’re still alive after shooting Chancellor Jaha.” Bellamy knew that his reputation would likely proceed him with the majority of those on the Ark, but he didn’t think that guards would be the most hostile towards him, given they generally came from all over the Ark, many from lower stations just like himself.

“Chancellor Jaha pardoned me for that crime,” Bellamy reminds, he speaks directly to Kane, not bothering to acknowledge the guard by looking towards him. “This is not a threat, we fought the grounders when we got here, they wiped out nearly half our people. _They_ will wipe you out and _we_ will not stop them. We have trade agreements in place, we’ve established solid boundaries and our camp is growing, not just in size, but in numbers.”

“Babies?” Abby questions, shock in her tone. He imagines to them it is quite a shock, they were sent to the ground with contraceptive implants, and the Ark’s one child policy had been in place for many years, families needed the council’s permission to have a child...that would not suffice on the ground. On the ground, numbers were key in order for the human race to survive, it needed to grow, and the population was certainly growing.

“Yes, there have been two born in the last year,” Bellamy nods, “Three more due in the next fortnight. The survivors of Mt. Weather have even joined our camp and several of our people have built relationships with locals, we’ve even had several commitment ceremonies.”

“Chancellor Kane,” one of the radios from the guards at the door crackles to life, “we’ve got another one coming out from the tree line.”

“Bring them in,” he nods to the guards to relay his message, “don’t shoot them, they are still our people, for now.”

Clarke blearily opens her eyes with a groan, she’d begun to feel the incredibly full feeling low in her pelvis late the night before, and she is now being woken up by a mildly uncomfortable back ache. She knew from conversations with Harper and Nyko that that was a sign that she’d be in active labor sooner than later. The sun streaming in the window told her it was actually much later than was normal for an average start to her day, and she was impressed that no one in camp had come to get her, she assumes it is under threat from Bellamy. She vaguely recalls him leaving earlier and judging by the emptiness of their cabin she knows it wasn’t a dream.

“Ohh buddy,” she winces, as the baby gives a swift kick, rubbing a soothing hand low across her belly, she can feel how the babe has shifted over the last few days, positioning for birth. “Take it easy in there, I know it’s cramped but you’ve still got a few days at least.”

And then the overwhelming urge to pee pushes her up and out of bed, quickly shuffling across their small one-room home. Once she’s relieved and washed up she waddles back to their bedroom corner and reaches for the pants laid over a chair at the nearby table; Bellamy had managed to wrangle her a few pairs of pants from the Mt. Weather stash over the last few months and even found a way to alter them to accommodate her continuous growth. Trading her sleep shirt, really an old one of Bellamy’s, for a clean one, a more current one of Bellamy’s, she grabs her jacket, which did little to wrap around her, before heading out in search of a meal. 

“Ahh, there you are,” Octavia joins her quickly after she steps down from their small front porch, handing her a piece of jerky and a banana, “Bellamy already radioed once, about an hour ago...told him I’d have you call once you were awake.”

Clarke gave a soft chuckle with a shake of her head, and snatchs the banana from her hand, the jerky had been giving her heartburn lately and she wasn’t prepared to deal with that today on top of the other aches and pains she’d woken up to. She does groan obscenely at the taste of food, which Bellamy has commented on several times over the past few months. The baby in her belly gives a swift kick as if to agree, demanding more. She pauses, before giving a quick glance around the camp, deciding she’s not needed at the moment and then turns back home, “I’m on it,” she promises, stepping onto their porch once again and giving Octavia a questioning look when she follows suit. “Make yourself at home.” 

“I will,” Octavia snorts, dropping on to the small bench that Bellamy had made some thick cushions for, not quite measuring up to the couch in her parents’ Ark apartment, but doing a decent job nonetheless, “I sent Lincoln to look after Bell, I’m here to look after you.”

“Octavia,” she sighs, shrugging out of the coat she’d barely had on and dropping onto the other end of their couch, “I’m fine.”

“I know,” she nods, with a roll of her eyes, “but this way maybe Bellamy worries a little less,” they share a knowing look at that and then Octavia reaches for the hand-held unit on their table and pushes it into her hand, “now call him.”

“Bellamy,” she speaks into the receiver, shooting an eye-roll of her own at her, for all intents and purposes, sister-in-law. When he doesn’t immediately answer, she tries again, “Bellamy, I know you can hear me.”

“Clarke?” Raven’s voice comes back at them and they both sit forward as if they’ll magically be able to see what’s going on, “We found Alpha station mostly intact.”

“Survivors?” Clarke asks, she assumes if the station is intact, the possibility of its inhabitants surviving is higher than she had previously thought.

“Yes, they have already begun building a wall, however meager it is at the moment…” Raven trails off, “Clarke...Bellamy was taken into custody when he tried to approach, they have him inside what is left of Alpha station, we lost contact nearly 20 minutes ago.”

“Raven?” Clarke questions, “Why am I just now hearing about this? How many survivors do they have?” 

“They shot at us as we approached, so we moved back into the trees out of their sight, and Bellamy went in on foot with his hands raised,” Miller’s voice greets them this time, “Kane and your mom were leading the charge...can’t say for sure about numbers, we only saw Kane, your mom, and two guards, but I’d say it's safe to assume, based on the numbers we know, close to 300 made the journey to the ground in Alpha station.”

“My mom?” Clarkes questions, sitting forward even more, as best she can, the baby swiftly kicks, as if to tell her she is crowding them. She leans back again, hand running along her belly, acknowledging her baby. “are you sure? She was supposed to be on the dropship that crashed.”

“It was definitely her,” Raven agrees, “I’d recognize her anywhere, Clarke, she was the last person I saw before launching from the Ark. She obviously wasn’t on board when the dropship launched that day.”

“Okay,” she rubs at her forehead, trying to process this news and think through the situation clearly, “so he’s in there by himself? And we don’t actually know how many Ark citizens have survived?”

“Yeah,” Raven returns this time, “Miller is trying to convince us to send him in.”

“It should be Miller,” Octavia agrees, speaking for the first time and when Clarke gives her a look and silence greets them from the other side, she shrugs, “he’s from Alpha, more than likely his dad is there as part of the guard, plus he _is_ Bellamy’s second.”

“See?” Miller’s voice carries a note of triumph, “I’m going,” he continues, “If we’re not back out by dark, you guys should head back to camp. Bellamy and I will do our best to get back as soon as we can.”

“If you guys aren’t out of there by nightfall, the only reason anyone is coming back here is to get me,” Clarke grumbles into the receiver, “give us an update as soon as you can?”

“You got it Boss,” Miller replies, there is a pause and Clarke is about to sign off and then he continues his thought, “and Clarke, I won’t let anything happen to him.”

“Thanks, Nathan,” she smiles hearing the scoff, she knows he hates the name, as Raven takes back over the radio.

“How’s everything else there?” she asks, and Clarke looks to Octavia, since she hasn’t even really made it out of her home yet today.

“Running smooth like always,” Octavia remarks, “Keep us updated when you can.”

“Take it easy,” Miller grunts at the guards as they force him down into a chair next to his friend, they are rougher with him than they were with Bellamy, but he figures Miller probably mouthed off a little more, he’s never been great at holding his tongue, “Your wife says hello.”

“She’s not my wife,” Bellamy reminds him, his eyes letting him know that he’s thankful for the update, he and Miller developed a bit of a routine over time where Nate would be extra aggressive, allowing Bellamy to be more of a calming presence, usually resulting in their opposition willing to negotiate with the calmer Bellamy. Good ole fashion ‘good cop, bad cop’...at least that’s what Miller calls it, something from old world television he’d watched growing up on Alpha.

“Nathan Miller,” Marcus Kane interrupts their silent communication, “it’s good to see you alive and well.”

“Thanks,” he snorts back sarcastically, he wasn’t handcuffed either, they obviously recognized him as one of their own...no doubt already alerting David to his presence. His handgun was missing from its holster and it was clear from the way the guards held their own guns that he was not here of his freewill. “So why are we being detained?”

“You aren’t being detained, we are just trying to figure out what’s gone on down here in the last 3 years,” Kane replies, with a small shrug, he’s settled comfortably in his chair, hands folded in his lap, legs crossed casually, as if he were enjoying a nice conversation with friends, instead of interrogating them.

“Ever think of just having a conversation?” Bellamy grunts, he tries rolling his shoulders, to ease some of the tension and stiffness that’s been building up, he knows that if he doesn’t get out of these cuffs soon, his shoulder is going to be useless for days afterward.

“We are,” Kane nods, “so let’s get back to this Coalition that you kids have made yourself a part of.”

“What of it?” Miller asks, “it’s a pretty sweet deal, Clarke and Bellamy have worked out for us. The Grounders helped us get food and clothes for our first winter. We’ve been able to help them take down Mt. Weather and Raven’s a genius with technology and construction. It has worked out well for both sides.”

“And why were you taking down Mt. Weather? They should have been a great ally to you, the old American government was one of the leading forces behind the space stations to begin with,” he leans back in his chair, crossing arms, trying now to offer up an intimidating pose.

“I’m sure they would’ve been if our bone marrow wasn’t so valuable to them,” Bellamy sighs, “they were draining Grounder blood for generations to combat their radiation exposure, when we came along they found out our systems were able to process the radiation at a much faster rate. Only by then there weren’t enough of us for them to get everything they needed and all of us to remain alive.”

“They were using you to harvest bone marrow?” Abby speaks up again, she has clearly taken on an observation role, and is allowing Kane to lead, but Bellamy wonders how long that will last if he actively starts talking about Clarke again. But she obviously has an interest in the medical knowledge, “it’s brilliant really,” she mumbles mostly to herself, when Bellamy nods to confirm her statement.

“Tell that to Fox who still can’t walk right,” Miller snaps, he’s always regretted not being able to help her sooner, but she’s still an upbeat, active member of their society.

“So what happened to the people in the Mountain?” Kane waves off Miller’s small outburst.

“We worked with the Commander and her Coalition, many of the higher ranking members perished in the battle, the rest were processed through a bone marrow donation program, and most of them have joined us at our camp,” Bellamy explains, it wasn’t a happy memory, or one he was particularly proud of, but they hadn’t had to kill everyone and that’s all they could be thankful for. It was something he and Clarke have struggled with a lot in the last few months as they prepare for parenthood, whether or not they deserve happiness when they’ve taken so many lives, but they’ve also worked damn hard to ensure that as many people as possible survive. “We were able to save all but two of our own.”

“We freed nearly 200 grounders when we finally shut the place down,” Miller adds, “stripped it of all sorts of technology and medical supplies then marked it off limits for everyone.”

“Medical supplies?” Abby jumps in again, “So you have medicine?”

“Clarke, and several Grounder healers, use a variety of methods for healing,” Bellamy nods, “She’s also been training a few of the 100.”

“She’s always taken care of everyone else,” Abby smiles and it doesn’t escape Bellamy’s attention that Kane turns to place a hand against her arm, he suspects they are in a relationship, or least very close, “so she’s your doctor?”

“She is,” Bellamy cuts off whatever Miller was about to say, shooting him a look, mindful that he’s walking a very delicate line and not wanting to give too much away. He couldn’t be sure how much Clarke would want for her mother to know, as far as they knew, Abby had died when the second dropship had crashed. He’s determined to play it cool for now, “She’s also sacrificed more than most in order to take care of all of us.”

“She always was more concerned about others than herself,” Abby reiterates, her eyes meeting Bellamy’s for the first time, and it’s almost like she can sense that he holds an importance in her daughter’s life, because they widen momentarily.

She’s about to speak again, but David Miller joins them, rushing past the guards at the door and pulling his son up and into a hug and the younger, didn’t seem to want to let him go. Bellamy couldn’t blame either man, if he had the opportunity to see and hug his mom again, he’d never let go. He hopes that Clarke gets the same chance, now that they know her mother is alive.

“What’s the plan here Chancellor?” David turns to the Ark leader, arm still wrapped around his son’s shoulders. “One of their vehicles was making a retreat, but the larger of the two is still in place, just past the line of trees.”

“Let’s send a team to bring whoever else is out there, in,” Kane orders the two guards at the door, “I assume they’ve gone to get reinforcements?”

“Most likely,” Miller, the younger, nods, “you’re holding one of the Skaikru Ambassadors, and his second, hostage. The Commander will view that as an act of war. She has held off up until this point because we asked, but Clarke is probably going to let the Commander handle it her way now, she doesn’t take kindly to her co-leader being held against his will.”

With that Kane ushers them to a cage, one that Bellamy was pretty sure used to house guns and ammo for the entire Ark. Now cleaned out, he assumes there are plenty of Arkers still alive and they are now armed. The fencing around the open area now allows the space to be ready to be used as a prison cell. 

“Is there a reason they don’t seem to know Clarke is your _chosen_?” Miller hisses, once they’ve been left alone, Bellamy is still quick to glance around making sure no one has heard. Bellamy hates the way Miller mocks the titles used on the ground, but in a way he understands too. The history of gay marriage was never truly forgotten and he knew that Miller intended to have a husband one day, but he and Clarke always felt it was important as Ambassadors to the coalition to try and fit in where they could.

“They don’t need that leverage right now,” Bellamy sighs, thankful they’d removed the cuffs before closing the cage. His arm feels like dead weight against his side, but he’s already beginning to do the stretches and hand exercises Clarke had drilled into him after he’d recovered from the injury. “We do. Abby knows she’s alive, that’s hopefully enough for them to move us toward getting back there.”

They hear the footsteps before they see Monty and Lincoln round the corner, both have hands cuffed in front of them. Guards usher them forward as another pushes around them to open the gate.

David Miller is there as the guards uncuff them and push them into the caged space as well. He hadn’t wanted to leave the first time, but Kane had ordered it, and now he was closing and locking the gate as the other guards stepped out of view.

“Dad!” Miller calls as his father turns away from the door, “you can’t leave us here.”

“It’s for your own safety Nate,” he sighs, rubbing his forehead, “I just got you back, I’m not ready to let you go again, at least not yet.”

“Raven took the Rover back?” Bellamy questions once he’s sure that everyone is out of earshot, massaging his right shoulder gently.

“We figured she’d better leave while she could, and Clarke was insistent that if you weren’t out by nightfall that she come back,” Lincoln nods, reaching out to pull the jacket away from Bellamy’s shoulder and pushing at his shirt sleeve to inspect the damage, for himself. He’s always been good friends with Nyko, and he’s been picking up knowledge from Clarke every now and then as well. “I think you’ve pulled a muscle.”

“It’s fine,” Bellamy sighs, shaking out his shoulders, feeling has returned to his hand, but the dull ache is still present in his shoulder, “it’ll just be stiff for a week or so. What’s the plan?”

“Clarke is going to come do her job as Ambassador,” Monty smirks, “she figures as the _Princess_ of the Ark they’re more likely to listen to her. She also has plans to kick your ass for and I quote, ‘ _making me haul this stupid pregnant body all over creation to clean up this mess_.’”

“Well I’d much rather she didn’t,” he snorts, “I’m sure someone out of the other 12 clans could negotiate our release.”

“Really?” Miller grumbles, and Bellamy realizes maybe Miller wasn’t just playing at their usual game and was actually annoyed at him, “and who do you picture being able to do that? Lexa? Who is not much older than us and therefore Kane will probably not give her the time of day. Or maybe Indra? I’m pretty sure she wants to slaughter us half the time, anyway. Roan? How many times has he held a sword to your throat in the last year?”

“Nate,” Monty warns gently, “He’s worried about his mate, she’s probably days away from giving birth. Give him a break.”

“No, Monty!” he shoves at the smaller man’s chest, “my dad just locked me up. This is the same Ark we’ve always known, they don’t care about individuals, we should have just left them to fend for themselves!”

“Maybe I should’ve,” Bellamy roars, frustrated with the whole day, and now his heavily pregnant _chosen_ was coming to rescue them. He had every faith and confidence in her ability to be diplomatic and problem solve, but he couldn’t bear the thought of her being in danger, especially right now. “But whether we like it or not, these are still our people. While the council is making stupid-ass decisions they are putting innocent people’s lives in danger, and I can’t live with anymore of that!”

“We may not get to!” Miller returns just as hotly and before he knows he’s even doing it, Bellamy hauls off and punches him in the face. Miller drops like a sack, caught by Lincoln moments before he completely crashes to the ground, and Bellamy is immediately regretting it as his shoulder is now throbbing and he can see the blood beading up on his knuckles. Bellamy paces as far from his friends as possible and slides down the wall to put his head in his hands.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went back and added to this chapter a little bit more today to flesh it out. Hopefully, it didn't ruin the flow. I'm on day 10/31

Clarke has paced the length of their home at least a dozen times in the hour since she got off the radio with the others. Octavia has come and gone, Clarke’s not even sure exactly what she is doing, but she hasn’t really been bothering her, so she puts it out of mind.

She can’t stop thinking about how her mother is still alive. She’s spent the last three years thinking that her Mom was dead, and she’d had to grieve at an accelerated rate, so that she could continue to lead the delinquents. Even after Mt. Weather, when they’d achieved peace, there was always something that needed looking after and she’s never dwelled on the fact that she was basically an orphan.

But they all were. Every last one of her clan, her kru, was, in a manner of speaking, an orphan, because they never knew what happened to the Ark, so they’ve just accepted their fates. They were going to live out their lives and continue to ensure the survival of the human race just as their parents had done, and their parents before them.

And now, it was all rushing back to her, the fact that while she’d been living her life down here, her mother had been living her life up there. What had it been like for them over the last several years, they’d obviously lost communications to the ground, but what else had gone on up there. Based on what Raven and Miller said, it didn’t seem like Chancellor Jaha had made the trip, so some things must have changed.

As she makes to pace by their bed once more, she feels a familiar squeezing low in her belly. She’s been experiencing it off and on for weeks, Nyko has basically called it pre-labor...but Mt. Weather’s books have reminded her they were once called Braxton-Hicks contractions, just her body preparing for the birth. 

Rubbing a hand against the underside of her belly, she has a feeling this could be more than that, but she’s got other things to worry about right now. She, of course, knows she’s already started to dilate, and she can literally feel the baby sitting against her cervix, but she’s never experienced it before and from what Nyko has said every woman’s labor and delivery is different. The pain isn’t really stopping her at the moment, so she’s in a ‘one thing at a time’ mindset.

“Clarke?” Raven’s voice echoes from the small table in front of their couch and she quickly moves that way, just as Octavia enters the house.

“Any news, Raven?” she asks, taking Octavia’s offered hand to ease down onto the seat.

“Two more guards came out to take Miller when he approached,” she reports, “I can only assume that they are going to move to bring us all in soon.”

“That’s what I would do, yeah,” Clarke sighs, “You guys should come on back and then we can ride back out there together to negotiate with them. And then I can string up Bellamy for making me haul this pregnant body all over creation to fix his mess.”

“I don’t think we should leave Bellamy and Miller,” Lincoln’s voice comes over next.

“But we don’t want them to come take you inside the gate,” Octavia interjects, gripping not only the radio but Clarke’s hand as well, pushing against her thumb to speak into the unit.

“I agree with Lincoln,” Monty adds, “we don’t know what’s happening inside the Ark, and if they somehow escape or they let them go, we don’t want them to be stranded out here without vehicles.”

“They are capable of making it back here on their own,” Octavia counters, and Clarke wiggles her fingers free, flexing them after having so much force applied by her sister-in-law.

“Raven’s heading back in the Rover now,” Lincoln replies, “we’ll stay here to monitor the situation, and keep you updated.”

“Until they come to get you, you mean?” Octavia asks rather annoyed at her chosen for ignoring her.

“We’ll be fine, right here, we’ll talk to you again soon,” he effectively ends the conversation, and Clarke thinks it's rather funny how Octavia has ended up with someone as stubborn as she is.

“It shouldn’t take me long,” Raven informs them, and then the radio goes silent and once again, Clarke levers herself up and begins pacing the room, once again.

“Raven!” Octavia calls as soon as the mechanic hops down from the Rover nearly an hour later. 

“I’ve got to collect some things from the shed. I think I can get into their communications signals, with the right equipment,” she informs, as she quickly moves toward her shed, she’d been thinking on the way back that the Ark must have set up their own communications system by now and she's pretty sure she can latch onto their signal with the right equipment.

“Clarke is ready to go whenever you are,” Octavia reports, before turning back toward the Dropship as Raven starts rummaging through her piles of stuff, “And Raven, I’m pretty sure, she’s having a baby.”

“Yeah, Octavia, that’s been obvious for a while now,” Raven snarks, barely looking up from her pile of parts.

“No, I mean like, actively having a baby, like it could be here today,” Octavia sighs, “she’s been wincing a lot, and she is struggling to get comfortable.”

“She’s been like that for the last few weeks,” Raven waves her off, Octavia and Lincoln spend most of their time with Trikru and haven’t been around the last little bit, so it’s not like she would know. 

“I know we’ve only been here a few days, but I’m telling you she seems different today,” Octavia argues.

“Well her mate has been taken hostage, and she just found out the Mom she’s thought dead for the last three years is actually alive, so...” Raven shrugs at her, “I think I’d be acting different today too.”

“I guess,” Octavia sighs, but she’s not convinced.

“I’m not saying you are wrong,” Raven huffs, “just give her the benefit too. Hopefully, she would tell us if she was actually having the baby today.”

“I hope you’re right,” Octavia grumbles, “I’m going to go tell Harper where we’re going and tell her we don’t know where her spouse is.”

“Great, I’ll be here,” Raven snarks. 

“It’ll be dark soon,” Raven finds them both waiting by the Rover another 20 minutes later as she starts loading equipment into the back, “are you sure you want to go now? Not just wait until morning.”

“Raven,” Clarke bites out with a warning tone, a hand cradling her belly, “I’m sort of on a time crunch at the moment,” she glanced down her own body, “let’s get this taken care of.”

“Okay, well I’m hoping I’ll be able to hack their radios and then we can talk to them before we bust through the gates,” she motions to her equipment, as Octavia jumps into the back of the Rover.

“Alright, let’s go,” Clarke nods and they spend the majority of the ride in silence. Clarke’s knee bouncing at a rapid pace and Octavia sharpening her sword as Raven concentrates on the driving. Clarke really can’t be sure but her back pain has been getting worse by the minute, it feels like. But she knows it is fairly common in general to have back pain as all her back muscles have been straining to help with the extra weight.

“There’s the truck,” Clarke points out as their head lights flash over the green vehicle camouflaged in the trees. “Doesn’t look like anyone is still here.”

“I’ll take a look around,” Clarke doesn’t think Octavia means it as an order, but it certainly sounds that way, so she nods as Raven climbs into the back and Octavia slams the door at the back of the Rover closed.

“Ah ha,” Raven exclaims only moments later, when voices come through the tiny speaker attached to Raven’s equipment. “Sounds like routine check-ins with their border patrol.”

“They’re gone,” Octavia reports as she climbs back into the Rover once again, shutting the door behind her. “But I didn’t see any signs of a struggle, so they are either out there scouting the area, which they should have radio’d about, or they didn’t put up a fight when the Ark came to get them.”

“I’m sure they are fine,” Raven squeezes her hand briefly, before messing with her radio again, “sounds like they’ve got a steady pattern of rotation near the main gate, we can try and circle round and look for the weak points of entry.”

“No,” Clarke turns as far as her body will let her, in the front seat, she is over this whole situation and she is going to settle it once and for all, “give me the radio.”

“Clarke...are you sure this is the best idea?” Octavia questions, placing her hand over the radio to halt Raven as she makes to pass it forward.

“We have to get them out of there,” Clarke shrugs, “I don’t think they are going to take lightly to us busting through their defenses, this way we talk first. Try to negotiate them out, if that doesn’t work, then we can bust through.”

“Okay,” Octavia concedes, and Clarke takes the hand-held from Raven’s hand. At her nod, Clarke brings it to her lips to speak.

“Alpha station,” she speaks clearly, she has plenty of practice at this point, knowing how to command attention with just her voice, “this is Clarke Griffin. I need to speak to your Chancellor.”

“This is Chancellor Kane,” his voice drifts back to her quickly, “and I must say, Clarke, it is great to hear your voice, I know your mother will be pleased to see you.”

“I’m more interested in seeing my people,” she replies, it’s not that she doesn't have an interest in seeing her mother, but it is not her main priority at this exact moment, “I’ve been told you have them in custody.”

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of your alliance with this Coalition,” Kane returns, “We’ve learned quite a lot about the last few years; we would like to bring all of you in...reintegrate you into our society.”

“We can definitely have a conversation related to that,” she tries very hard not to come off as annoyed and condescending, but she is annoyed that these people are trying to overtake them, when they don’t have a clue about how things work here, “but right now, _our_ society is thriving and _we_ might be willing to help you integrate on this planet.”

“ _Clarke?!?_ ” a hysterical woman’s voice suddenly drifts over the airwave. Her heart seizes and she freezes, jolting when the baby within her gives a swift kick, with a sweeping hand she tries to calm the child. She’d recognize her mother’s voice anywhere, which surprises her because lately she’s started to fear she’d forgotten it altogether, but there it was calling her name and she knows instantly it’s her mom. 

“Mom,” she returns trying to make sure her voice remains calm, even, but there are too many emotions coming at her at once, not to mention she’s still not positive she’s not in labor, “you need to tell Kane that he needs to release my people.”

“Clarke, we can discuss that when we meet,” Abby’s voice wavers slightly, and Clarke knows that her mother is not doing much better in the emotions department. For the first time in her life, Clarke feels like she totally understands where her mother is coming from, never having even met the person growing inside her, she knows she’d be near inconsolable if she were to be on the verge of seeing her baby again after such a significant time apart, not even knowing if they were safe, “Where are you?”

“We can meet when I have your assurances that my people are unharmed and will be there,” she returns smoothly, or at least she hopes it’s smooth, she is not feeling the most confident today, “There’s a bridge less than five miles from your camp, my people know where it is. Have them bring the truck and we can talk on neutral ground.” 

“We have a condition: no weapons,” Kane’s voice returns over the radio, “it may not be your camp, but nothing on this earth is neutral ground.”

“Are you prepared to also leave your guns behind?” silence greets her question, so she carries on, “we’ll be there in one hour.”

“Are you sure this is the best way?” Octavia asks, as Raven flicks the radio back off. “They are going to come to meet fully armed.”

“And so are we,” Clarke nods firmly, “Radio back to camp, we need 20 guards not on duty to ride out and meet us at the bridge.”

“I don’t think you should go,” Kane sighs, placing the radio down on the table, “no one will blame you for wanting to see your daughter, but you are going to be more focused on that, than actually negotiating with them.”

“That’s a non-negotiable,” Abby wants to laugh in his face, “this is as close as my daughter has been in three years, you are out of your mind, if you think I’m not going with you.”

“But you can’t let your emotions cloud your judgement here,” he decides, “we need those kids in our camp not just for their safety, but for their knowledge and experience. They are right, they have been surviving down here for the last 3 years, but we need to make them understand, they don’t have to be reliant on the Grounders anymore.”

“We need to talk to Bellamy again,” Abby decides, she fears that the relationship between this man and her daughter may be more than just co-leaders, but for now, “he’s going to have the most knowledge about Clarke and her strategy when meeting with us.”

“Johnson,” Kane barks towards the door and a guardsman appears at attention, “bring Bellamy Blake back here.”

Bellamy is surprised when the guards come for him a few hours later. He’s still sitting on the floor on the opposite side of the cage from the rest of his people, the other three men have been talking quietly, but he knows that Lincoln and Monty have convinced Miller that it wasn’t a personal attack against him. This time they cuff him in front, before leading him back to Chancellor Kane and Dr. Griffin.

“We’ve set a meeting with Clarke,” Abby starts, as soon as he’s pushed back into the same chair as before. “She says you can take us to the bridge where the meeting is scheduled to happen.”

Bellamy nods, after their first disastrous negotiation there, and their attempt to blow the bridge up, it has become a meeting spot for several different meetings. It was technically Trikru land, but Lexa had declared it neutral ground, and it had served that way for negotiations, not just involving Skaikru. 

“How much backup is she going to bring to this meeting?” Kane’s blunt in his question, and Bellamy snorts.

“Like I’m going to tell you that,” he shakes his head, “she’ll bring what she feels is necessary, as I’m sure you will too.”

“She’s also demanding we bring all four of you with us to the meet,” Abby informs him, “we need your assurance that she’s actually going to negotiate with us, once she gets you back.”

“She doesn’t want to just abandon you out here,” he sighs, finally meeting Abby’s eyes, she feels as though this is a major concession for him, “Honestly, if circumstances had been different, she’d be the one sitting here instead of me. We don’t want to harm the people here, but you are going to have to acclimate to this new way of life.”

“But now that we’re here, you won’t need to rely on the Grounders,” Kane disagrees, “we have better resources at our fingertips.”

“You don’t even know what resources they have!” Bellamy slams his hand against the table, “None of you know how to hunt, or fish, or skin a deer, how to turn that into a fur coat. These are things you’ll have to learn, you can do it the hard way, while also trying to fight off an army, the size of which you can’t even imagine. Or you can become part of our treaty, and allow people with knowledge to teach you.”

“We need to go,” Kane ignores his words, “Johnson, get the rest and meet us at the gate.”

“We’ll need you to drive us to the location,” Abby tells Bellamy, as Kane jerks him from his seat, she sees him wince and roll his shoulders, before nodding at her. 

Bellamy climbs into the driver’s seat under the watchful eye of Kane, perched in the passenger seat. He’d been held, while they loaded Miller, Lincoln, and Monty into the back. Four guards climbing in after them, allowing Bellamy to feel confident that Skaikru would easily outnumber the Ark at this meeting.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last of what is pre-written...I have a large chunk of the next chapter written already, but after that I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Anyway this makes day 11/31.

Clarke surveys the bridge when they arrive, she can hear the distant sound of hoofs beating against the earth, and is thankful once again that they’d been able to trade for horses last spring. While their vehicles, from Mt. Weather, were great for traveling and carrying goods, the horses allowed them to take day trips and venture out to explore more freely.

Even though they’d adopted many grounder methods of survival, nothing would be able to beat the artificial light sources they’d had on the Ark and that they’d stripped Mt. Weather of; so they have headlights from the Rover to light the bridge as best they can. Each of them also carries a small flashlight, but Octavia and Monroe have also gone around and added as many torches as they could to help light up the areas they wanted to draw attention to, as much as possible. It’s going to be difficult for the Arkers to see the 20 or so members of the Skaikru hiding in the trees when so much light is assaulting their eyes.

Octavia and Raven have insisted Clarke stay behind the Rover until they are sure that the Ark guards were not in a shoot first mood. Clarke thinks it is ridiculous, because it’s her mom with those Ark guards, but concedes anyway. Which means that Octavia is the one set to walk out on what is left of the bridge when they hear the rumbling of the truck nearing. Clarke is barely able to make out the people jumping down from the truck, but can easily count 10 different people, assuming they’ve brought all 4 of her people, her mother, and Kane, that left 4 unknowns in the situation. 

“Can you get them back on the radio?” Clarke, massaging at her own back, questions Raven when she sees several bodies moving towards the bridge. “Bellamy first,” she orders, when Raven hands her the hand-held receiver. She could easily pick out his build as he was jerked to a stop.

“We need a show of good faith from your side before we send one of your leaders back to you,” Kane’s voice crackles in her hand.

“My people haven’t killed any of you yet,” she snorts, “that’s about the best I can do for you, Kane. Bellamy only.”

Finally she sees the silhouette she knows is Bellay move across the open area to greet his sister, wrapping her in a quick hug; once she was sure that there were not going to be any bullets flying she spoke again, “send the others and then Bellamy and I will meet with you and my mother to talk.”

As the other shadows slowly move from behind the truck to the bridge, she watches Bellamy release Octavia and head back towards where she is standing with Raven, “I can’t believe you are out here,” Bellamy grumbles, wrapping her up tightly in his arms. She grunts, having to stretch up to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, my back is just acting up,” she sighs, bringing her hands to rub at the muscles again. Bellamy swats her hand away to soothe the muscles there himself, “You guys okay?”

Monty and Lincoln nod, but Miller is rubbing at his jaw and glaring at Bellamy as they come around the Rover. Octavia stands guard just to the side of the vehicle keeping a close watch on the bridge...and then the radio crackles to life again. 

“Your people are unharmed,” Kane’s voice sounds exasperated, but Clarke can’t really blame him for all appearance’s sake he just got outsmarted by a bunch of kids, who shouldn’t even be alive, “now please join us.”

Bellamy ever the overheater ditches his jacket in the back of the Rover before Clarke grabs his hand as they step around their friends and the protection the vehicle offers. She can picture them in her mind, how Kane and her mother will see them, standing side-by-side, hands linked between them. Proof of their partnership blossoming in her womb. His curls, longer than they’ve ever been, tucked behind his ears, her’s almost the same length. Harper had put berries in it a few weeks ago to add some bold red near the tips. 

Her Ark issue jacket, not even coming close to meeting at her front, is used to ward off the slight chill of the evening, it also conceals the ink that decorates most of her forearm; his matching ink is in plain sight. It's an elaborate piece, they'd each sat for nearly three days to complete the design, consisting of moons and stars, earth and water, yin and yang, all the things that make them, them. When Octavia had first shown up around camp with a tattoo, Bellamy had nearly blown a gasket, but she and Lincoln had sat down and explained it all to him and he'd immediately come to Clarke with his proposal and not a week later Lincoln was starting on Bellamy's own.

Normally, at a meeting like this they would also be carrying full weaponry, which consists of a heavy Sword for both of them, as well as the guns they'd found in Mt. Weather and various bunkers along the way. Because the Ark now holds Bellamy's handgun and they have plenty of backup, neither carries visible weapons. But Clarke still has several small knives concealed on her person, not that she would have much luck reaching their locations in her current condition, but Bellamy knew where they were hidden, and would easily be able to grab each of them.

"Oh!" Clarke hears her mother gasp as both pairs finally step into the light, "Thank god."

Clarke can’t help but to agree with her sentiment, seeing one’s own mother for the first time in 3 years, after having thought her dead, is certainly a breathtaking moment. She hears the blood rushing through her ears and the rest of the world drowns out, and she can’t help but crumble slightly. It’s only Bellamy’s solid hand, now low at her back that keeps her from being bowled over when her mother charges forward into her for a tight hug. And for a moment she’s 17 again, hugging her mother for the last time, not knowing what’s going on until she’s waking up on the Dropship next to her childhood best friend. She can’t help but cling to her mother, as she’s transported back to the present and for as much as she thought she’d grown. In that moment she’s never been more grateful to realize that she still has her mother.

Then she feels her mother freeze and she knows that she is feeling the physical changes in her, despite missing it on her first visual inspection. The light, and intentional shadows, probably helped in keeping her condition hidden from her eyes. She feels the baby give a fairly swift kick too, and she’s sure that her mother can also feel it.

“Hold your fire!” Bellamy commands, and it’s then that Clarke opens her eyes, not even realizing she’d closed them, and sees guards and Skaikru alike, weapons raised stepping into the light from both sides of the bridge.

“Well, now that we know where everyone stands,” Kane sighs dramatically, “guns down,” he nods to the guards at his back. Bellamy then nods at their own people at their backs. “It’s good to see you again, Clarke.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Clarke grimaces, stepping away from her mother. She feels another twinge low in her back, she’s noticed a pattern to them since around the time they left camp and she’s sure that she is now in actual labor.

“Clarke,” Abby sighs, reaching toward her daughter again, “you need to allow us to help you.”

“We don’t need help,” Clarke returns, “we have survived here for years, we are willing to help you, but we need some assurances first.”

“Such as?” Kane asks, and Clarke turns to Bellamy then, they’ve worked well together for years, because they are able to bounce off each other. They are able to communicate without speaking and now she’s imploring him to pick up the conversation. She has no idea what they’ve already talked about.

“Guns,” Bellamy starts, “you can’t shoot first. The Grounders don’t carry guns, don’t like them at all really, but we do have a large collection. They are tools, great for hunting, not to be used against human beings unless the threat against you causes fear for your own life.”

“Which means,” Clarke glances behind him, “you need to collect them from your people, only select, trusted few have access until you are more settled on the ground.”

“That will leave our people vulnerable to attack,” Kane argues.

“We can offer you protection,” Clarke returns, “you won’t need it, but we can offer it.”

“You’ll also need to meet with the Commander, sooner rather than later,” Bellamy follows up, “we’ll take you to Polis to join the summit that she will call.”

“You want us to leave our people leaderless, to go negotiate with a figurehead that we know nothing about?” Kane questions.

“Again, we can offer protection,” Clarke sighs. Abby has not stopped watching her, her eyes tracking the hand that Clarke hasn’t been able to drop from cradling her bump, she is now positive that she is in fact in labor, and the cramping is increasingly more frequent. “We can even send for some of our best, to help get your people started on structures, farming, and even some Grounder language.”

“I’m sure our engineers and farmers are more than capable of figuring out how to build us some structures and cultivate the land,” Kane waves off her offer, “And your friend Lincoln seems to speak English well enough, so we’ll be okay.”

“I know you are used to how things run on the Ark, but have you taken the time to think that just maybe you’ll need help to survive down here?” Bellamy snarks, he’s clearly fed up with the whole process and Clarke is certain that he’s just anxious to get her back home.

“Whatever you decide,” Clarke grumbles, “you’ll still need to meet with the Commander and workout some sort of treaty, she’s willing to show mercy when her lands are invaded, but you’ll have to approach her.”

“How does she control so much land?” Abby questions, eyes still glued to her daughter. “She’s one person, and based on what Bellamy says, she commands quite a few people.”

“She was able to unite the 12 clans,” Bellamy answers her, before glancing around again, “Whether you come with us tonight or not, you will eventually have to meet with Lexa and she’ll require a treaty agreement or she will wipe you out.” He’s louder now, letting the guards from the Ark hear, so that they aren’t beholden to whatever Kane and Abby decide.

“We’ll meet with your Commander,” Kane decides, after glancing at the guards at his back, “but it shall be on our terms, at your camp in 2 days time?”

“We’ll make the arrangements,” Clarkes nods, “in the meantime, I suggest you put away your guns and work on getting a plan in place. Planting should be happening in the next few weeks, if you hope to--” she pauses in her sentence, and Bellamy sees the tightening of her brow...the way her hand shifts a little lower to press firmly against her belly, “have enough food stored for the colder months.”

She’s much more breathless as she finishes her sentence, and she looks up at him, the lights around them are making her glow and somehow he just looks at her and he knows, “Clarke?” he tries to keep his voice soft, Kane and Abby have turned away briefly, appearing to discuss something. If Abby’s jerky movements are any indication, he has a feeling they are discussing Abby’s unwillingness to be away from her daughter after having been split apart for the last three years.

“Yep,” her teeth are grit this time when she speaks and she grabs onto the hand that he has lifted toward her. “Definitely a contraction.”

“Is that the first one?” he feels the panic starting to burn up inside of him, but they are not in a situation where he can let it out. He grips her hand with more force than strictly necessary to keep from calling out to Octavia and Raven behind them.

Her eyes are guilty when she turns to shake her head at him, but she straightens up when her mother turns back toward them, “if it is alright with you,” she begins, “I would like to return to your camp with you--at least until the summit.”

“Mom…” Clarke trails off, contraction over, “we have much to prepare,” the word comes out on soft moan, and suddenly the only thing keeping her on her feet are Bellamy’s arms, quickly wrapped under her own.

“Clarke?!” Abby startles rushing towards her, hands blindly reaching toward her middle, “how far along are you Clarke?”

“38 weeks...give or take,” Bellamy offers, when it becomes clear that Clarke will not be answering, as she leans heavily into him. Octavia is rushing up to them quickly, having maintained her post as lookout.

“Looks like you're having a baby,” Abby looks into her daughter’s face and Clarke is surprised to see there are tears there, and a soft hopeful note in her voice, “but I don’t imagine you want to do it right here.”

“Raven!” Octavia calls, having learned what she needs to, she turns to head back toward the Rover, “bring the rover closer, we’ve got to get Clarke back to camp.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly shocked that I'm still posting daily on the 12th of December, but here we are. Thanks for all your wonderful feedback, I hope you continue to enjoy this story.

In all the overwhelming situations Clarke has dealt with over the last 3 years, none of them have made her want her mother as much as this one does. Once she’s steady on her feet again, she still leans heavily against Bellamy, but pulls gently down on his hands, gripping them with her own, “I want my mom,” he pulls away from her stunned. He knows there are several mixed feelings when it comes to Abigail Griffin, but he’s still surprised that she would ask for her now. He holds her eyes, double and triple checking before giving a small nod.

David Miller asks if he can also join them at their camp. “Miller, you don’t mind staying with the Ark until the summit?” Bellamy asks, in response to the question, still not taking his eyes from Clarke.

“I’ll stay too,” Lincoln decides, “we’ll make sure they arrive at the camp in time,” he promises.

“Are you sure?” It’s Clarke who asks this time, breaking eye contact with Bellamy to glance at her brother-in-law, “this baby is your family, too.”

“It’s important that we maintain a united front with your people,” he concedes, “besides, I’m the only one that’s left.”

Bellamy silently acknowledges that as true, they can’t leave Raven, invaluable in her expertise in technology and engineering, they can’t ask Monty to spend two more days away from his family, and he’s not willing to part with Octavia either. Normally he would be the first to volunteer to stay, but he’s not about to miss out on the birth of his first child, he’s going to be selfish for once in his life.

“You watch each other’s backs,” Bellamy commands, allowing Abby and Octavia to help Clarke into the back of the Rover, “Chancellor Kane,” he turns to the older man, “I expect my people to be treated as every other citizen until your journey to the summit.”

“Abby will be treated in kind?” Kane asks, when Bellamy nods, Kane does the same and then they part as everyone else loads into the Rover. 

“Hey,” Bellamy places a hand against Miller’s shoulder before he can turn to follow Kane across the bridge, “I’m sorry, about earlier.”

“I know,” he nods, and then grins, “go be with your wife.”

“Look after each other,” Bellamy ignores Miller’s taunt, “and observe as much as you can.”

“Of course,” Miller nods.

“ _Spechou bro_ ” Lincoln claps him on the back, pulling him into a quick hug.

“ _Mochouf_ ,” Bellamy returns, heading for the Rover, as Octavia hops down once more to say bye to Lincoln. 

“How you doing?” Bellamy questions as he finally settles next to his mate on one of the bench seats in the back. Opposite Abby and Octavia, while Raven drives and Monty navigates them through the darkness back toward home.

“Been better,” she sighs, leaning heavily into his side, “also, never do that again.”

“What? Get taken hostage by our former people?” he tries to joke, but she grips roughly as his knee, reminding him it’s not a joking matter, and she’s definitely not in a joking mood, “Promise, Princess.”

“So, not to ask the obvious, but this is your baby?” Abby looks to her daughter and what she can only assume, based on their closeness, and the earlier fact she’d learned that he is married, is her son-in-law.

“Yes,” he nods, “I told you our people are flourishing.”

“The implants have stopped working then?” she questions, Clarke is surprised she’s not asking more personal questions.

“Mine was never updated,” Clarke reminds her, “wasn’t worth wasting resources on someone in solitary. But to answer your question, no, we’ve removed a couple of them over the last few years. Some of them have begun running out, though.”

“The Grounders have a tea,” Octavia supplies, “it works pretty well, we’ve only had two unplanned babies so far.”

“Let’s just hope it stays that way,” Abby remarks, and Clarke is once again squeezing tightly around Bellamy’s knee, this time for a different reason, “when was your last checkup?”

“Yesterday,” Bellamy says, when it becomes clear that Clarke is not focusing on the conversation anymore, “Harper said she was dilated 1 cm.”

“That’s good,” Abby nods, “how long have you been having contractions Clarke?”

“I don’t know,” she blows out an exasperated breath, “my back has been spasming all day, I was hoping it was just that, but now I’m thinking it wasn’t.”

“I’d say not,” her mother agrees, and then they run over something that causes the whole rover to bounce violently.

“Raven!” Bellamy barks, bracing a foot against the opposite bench, and holding tightly to Clarke as they nearly slide off their seat, “can we make it back to camp in one piece?”

“Sorry,” she sheepishly looks back towards them, “I was aiming for fast.”

“Fast is good,” Clarke grits, “alive is better.”

“Oh, don’t be dramatic,” Raven huffs, “it was barely a bump in the road.”

“Let’s not piss off the woman in labor,” Monty soothes before Bellamy can retort, “look there’s camp.”

“Thank god,” Clarke deflates against Bellamy’s side. As Raven skids them through the main gate, Monty suggests she take them straight to Medbay, “No, home, I don’t want to have the baby in Medbay.”

Bellamy holds her eyes briefly, before nodding, “Our place Raven, get as close as you can.” Which is fairly easy, since their home is situated near the edge of camp, a quick walk to both the dropship and the Medbay, and is separated from most of the other living quarters. 

“Alright,” Raven parks the Rover and Octavia swings the backdoor open, hopping out first, rushing towards Medbay, calling over her shoulder about getting Harper. Monty heads for their front door, opening it and moving to the fireplace getting started on a fire, all before Clarke has even gotten out of the Rover.

Abby and Bellamy are on either side of her as she eases down the bumper step. She’s pretty positive she won’t have another contraction for at least a few more minutes, but they stick close to her sides, anyway. She sinks gratefully onto their couch, pulling her jacket off and leaning back to take a deep breath, or as deep as she can, anyway. “Well that was exciting,” she starts. Bellamy, hands on hips, stands in front of her, “Don’t give me that look,” she continues, realizing he’s been holding back.

“You’re in labor,” he points out, needlessly, and she’s right, he is pissed.

“Caught that, did you?” she grimaces, shifting slightly, it’s an incredibly uncomfortable feeling, the baby pressing against her cervix, a very heavy, full feeling low in her pelvis.

“I told you I didn’t want to go, for this very reason,” he continues, “I spent the day in handcuffs, my arm feels like it is about to fall off, and Miller and Lincoln didn’t come home with us. And you are in _labor_.”

“Can you maybe yell at me later?” she huffs, she understands his frustration, and she knows he’s lashing out now, more out of fear than anger, “I’m not exactly thrilled with the situation either, but it’s not like we could just leave them out there, unprotected. They are still our people.”

“I don’t give a _fuck_ about them,” he growls, and she’s about to retort, when all that comes out is a long, low groan, “breathe,” he urges, softening his voice, and squatting in front of her. His entire tone and demeanor changes immediately, seeing her in pain.

“Maybe you should take a walk,” Abby suggests gently, moving behind Clarke, “Clarke needs to focus right now.”

“I know what Clarke needs,” he snaps, glaring up at her from under his brow, he’s frustrated all the way around, and it doesn’t help that Abby Griffin is standing in his home, and he hasn’t had a chance to Clarke about any of it, “how’s that fire coming Monty?”

“All good,” he promises, just as Octavia and Harper burst through the door. Octavia is carrying a gurgling Jordan, who shrieks when he sees his dad, nearly launching from her arms. “Hey buddy.”

“Hey Clarke,” Harper’s voice is gentle as she settles on the couch next to her, dropping a large bag in front of her, “how do you feel?”

“Not great,” she grunts, letting Harper feel for her pulse, “I’m pretty sure I’ve already moved into active labor.”

“Let’s get you to the bed then and I’ll check,” Harper nods to Bellamy and he helps pull her up.

“We’re going to get out of here,” Monty murmurs to Harper, while Bellamy and Abby move with Clarke towards the bed, “I love you.”

“Love you too,” she smiles, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Clarke slaps away the helping hands of both her mother and her chosen, when they try to help her get undressed. Bellamy, knowing she’s agitated, reaches for the old flannel shirt they’d found in a random bunker somewhere, he wore it a lot over the last two winters, but this past one she’d confiscated it for herself, and he knew that she’d planned to wear it as a hospital gown.

Once she’s settled, Abby moves between her raised knees, “I’m going to check, okay?” she pats her daughter’s thigh. “You’re right at 7 centimeters.”

“What?!” Bellamy whips his head around to glare at her so fast, he knows he’s going to feel the whiplash tomorrow. He can hear Clarke’s squeaking agreement to his outrage, “How is that possible? It was 1 yesterday morning.”

“I’d say all that back pain today was probably contractions, it’s honestly impressive that you haven’t experienced stronger contractions until now,” Abby tells them, “the good news though is that means you’re a lot closer to the end than you probably thought.”

“Okay,” Harper claps her hands, knocking the shock out of Bellamy, and taking control of the situation. She’s learned a lot from Clarke over the last few years, and she knows there is a little too much chaos with the current situation, “before things get too hectic, Clarke?”

“Uh huh,” she nods, “Can Bellamy and I have a few moments?”

“Right,” Octavia smirks, they’d told her several months ago that they wanted her to be in camp but not in their home, she was supposed to be the first to meet her niece or nephew, she doubts that’s how it’s going to work now, “I’m going to go grab some dinner and see where Raven got to.”

“Take Dr. Griffin with you,” Bellamy instructs, before she can get out the door. Octavia shoots him a look, waiting at the open door. Bellamy’s reminded so much of that bratty teenager that came down to earth, she’s clearly pissed at his instruction.

“Clarke asked for me,” Abby stands her ground now, she doesn’t know all the dynamics in the room, but she does know that when her daughter was in pain she asked for her.

“Mom, it’s just--Bellamy and I need to talk,” Clarke urges her to follow Octavia, she’s already exhausted after the day’s events and now she feels like she’s going to have to play peacemaker between her mate and her mom, “someone will come get you, before too long, okay?”

Abby, still reluctant to leave her daughter, places a kiss against her forehead, pushing the hair back from her face. “I love you,” she promises, before moving to follow Octavia.

“Go see Monty,” Bellamy urges Harper, assuring her they’d be okay for a few minutes, she ducks out the door, letting them know she’d be at her cabin.

“Are you really going to be mad at me right now?” Clarke asks, when they are finally alone, and he hasn’t turned to look at her.

“Clarke,” her name leaves his lips, anguished and raw. He turns to her now, bracing his hands near her hip and leaning close to her face, the utter fear on his face, enough to break her heart.

“I’m sorry,” she pleads, “I really didn’t think this was going to happen today.”

“I know,” he sighs, “I’m just...what if--”

“We don’t live in what ifs,” she reminds him, they’ve been down this road before, “we just have to be thankful that everything turned out the way it has.”

“Okay,” he takes a deep breath, and blows it out, letting things go, “so how are you feeling, right now?”

“Physically, each contraction feels like it’s worse than the last, by like a lot,” she sighs deeply, “mentally, I’m lost...my mom is _alive_.”

“How do you feel about that?” he asks, and before she can answer, she’s grabbing his hand, pulling him closer toward her on the bed, “breathe, you have to breathe through these.”

“Uh huh,” she hums, acknowledging him, but otherwise just squeezing his hand. He feels her grip ease up, and he waits for her to fully relax, before imploring her with his eyes, “I don’t know how I feel about it yet.”

“That’s okay,” he nods, “but you wanted her here?”

“I mean, what woman doesn’t want her mother there when she gives birth?” she shrugs, “even not knowing she was alive these last three years, there were still moments I wished she was there, finding out I was pregnant near the top of that list.”

“I know,” he remembers, the quiet confession she’d made not long after they’d found out, the desire for her mom to be there, he’d confessed to the same thing. “Do you want her to help with the delivery, or…”

“I...is it awful if I say yes? Harper has helped deliver several babies, and Nyko too, but my Mom is a _doctor_ ,” she implores him.

“That’s not awful,” he shakes his head, leaning forward to place a kiss against her lips, “so, I’ll go get her and Harper, and then we can prepare to meet our baby?”

“Wait,” she stops him, “how’s your arm? Don’t think I didn’t catch you shouting about that.”

“It doesn’t feel great,” he shrugs, “my hand is still going numb, but I’m doing those exercises you started me on.”

“Good,” she nods, “have my Mom look at it after you send Harper back.”

“I think it can wait until after the baby is born,” he chuckles, shaking his head, about to get up, when she grabs at his arm, “breathe, baby.”

“I’m trying,” she grits, and they wait out the contraction before he takes off running to get the two women.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Exciting things happening in this chapter, I hope it lives up to y'all's expectations.

Abby marvels as she moves through their camp, everyone seems to have an essential role. There are guards patrolling throughout the camp, and she spotted them when they came through the gate earlier as well. “Mess is this way,” Octavia instructs her, breaking her out of her reverie.

“You have a mess hall?” she questions, noticing the way the building seems to be the center of traffic, even though it is well past nightfall.

“Yeah,” she nods, “everything here is shared equally, hunting parties bring back as much meat as they can,” she points toward a smaller shack out behind the mess hall, “that’s the smoke shack, most of it gets smoke, but there are a few promising cooks around here. Over there is the greenhouse, and there are few crop fields on shared Trikru land.”

“Lincoln is Trikru?” Abby asks, following Octavia through the camp.

“Yes, as am I,” she informs, “we were the first union between Skaikru and the Grounders.” 

It’s as they step through the doors that Octavia realizes they never announced to camp what was going on with the Ark. Before anyone can really question them, she takes the initiative to make an announcement, “I know, you’re all anxiously waiting to find out what’s happening, as you can tell there were survivors from Alpha Station.”

“How many?” a voice calls from somewhere near the back.

“Nearly 300 people from Alpha made it to the ground,” Abby answers. And then there was a clamber of people questioning, names being thrown out at them.

“Hey!” Octavia shouts over the noise, “I know you all have a bunch of questions, but they are going to have to wait. Clarke is in labor. I will tell you that there is going to be a summit soon. Get back to it! Now!” she demands when everyone still stands watching them.

“They listen to you,” Abby says, shocked. Octavia directs her to serving line at the front, nodding to the server when he hands over two full bowls.

“You should see how they react to Bellamy and Clarke, they are the leaders of this camp and they have been pretty much since day one," Octavia settles at a table away from the majority of people, "they are the reason we survived in those early days."

"Yes, I'm beginning to see what you mean," Abby can't help but to glance around at all the people again, many she recognizes as the teens she helped send to the ground and several she doesn't recognize at all, she assumes they are either Mt. Weather citizens or Grounder, "how were they able to rein in so many unruly teenagers?"

“Because if they didn’t, people would’ve died, _our_ people, they did what they had to do, the fear of being wiped out by the grounders certainly helped,” Octavia supplies gently, “they had to or else we would’ve died.”

“Okay,” Abby nods, and then there is a commotion as Bellamy slams through the door at the front of the mess hall, “How is she?”

“Definitely in labor,” he’s slightly breathless as he nods, bracing his hands against his hips to take deeper breaths, “O, can you go get Harper from her cabin?”

“Of course,” she jumps up quickly heading out the door. Abby has jumped up as well, making to follow when Bellamy places a hand against her arm, halting her progress.

“I need you to understand something,” Bellamy intones, putting on his best intimidating posture, “your daughter and our child are the two most important things in my life, nothing can happen to them.”

“I don’t want anything to happen to them,” Abby argues, confused at his tone.

“I don’t just mean physically. Clarke has been through a lot over the last three years, more than any of us ever thought we would have to endure, and she has come out the other side, stronger than anyone should have the right to be,” he meets her eyes, imploring her to understand, “but if you come back into her life, after she thought she lost you, and you hurt her...”

“The last thing I want to do is hurt her,” Abby sighs, “we don’t want to hurt any of you, all we want to do is to protect you and make life easier for you than it has been.”

“That’s the thing though, we don’t need you to protect us,” he’s sharp, “we want to have you as part of our clan, but it is _our_ clan.”

“I understand Bellamy, I do, but these are discussions for another time, when there is _more_ time. The important thing right now is the birth of your child,” Abby then turns to move back through the door of the Mess Hall. Bellamy follows, determining he’s made his point for now, and ready to get back to Clarke.

Harper has helped Clarke up and she is pacing, by the time they come through the front door again. Bellamy is at her side quickly, and Abby moves to speak with Harper, interested to see what methods and procedures they’ve used in deliveries in the past.

“Hey,” she greets him softly, “what did Mom say about your shoulder?”

“It’s fine,” he promises, taking the hand she’s using to search for him, “did Harper check you?”

“Uh huh, she agrees with Mom’s assessment,” she pauses in her steps, and her whole body tenses, Bellamy pushes gently at her lower spine, and then winces when she squeezes extra strong at his hand.

“You still want to be upright?” he asks, as the pain eases, she nods quickly, beginning to shuffle along their floor again.

“These contractions are coming pretty quickly now, and the pain in my back is too uncomfortable to be sitting,” she explains, and Abby moves towards them.

“Clarke,” Abby is gentle, placing a hand against her arm, and moving with the two, “maybe we should get you to the bed?”

“I’m good,” Clarke shakes her head, “I’ve read a lot about this, I’m going to gravity help as much as possible.”

“I did it with Jordan,” Harper chimed in, “can’t say for sure, but it seemed to make things easier. Nyko recommended it and they’ve been using this method for years in different clans.”

“We’re going to let Clarke do what she wants,” Bellamy is firm when Abby opens her mouth again, effectively cutting off her opinion, and they start moving again. 

It feels like hours on end, that they shuffle and pause, but Bellamy hasn’t seen the first rays of light, so he knows it hasn’t been as long as it seems to him. Finally, Clarke declares she wants to push, and Harper has set up a nest of blankets and pillows on the floor. A chair is placed just off center of her pile and she instructs Bellamy to sit there. Clarke, having helped with Harper’s delivery, already knows her place, using Bellamy’s thighs, to support herself as she squats between his feet.

“Okay, Clarke, I’m going to let Abby check you again, okay?” Clarke nods jerkily at Harper’s question, she’s facing him and Bellamy rubs his hands against her shoulders in support. She grabs his left hand in her right and holds on. Abby is kneeling behind her and Harper is beside her.

“You are fully dilated, Clarke,” Abby announces, placing a hand against her back, “you go ahead and push whenever you feel you need to.”

Bellamy feels helpless, he can only watch as she pushes and pushes and then pushes some more. She’s been mostly quiet throughout the contractions, but now she moans lowly as she strains to deliver their child.  
“You’re making great progress,” Abby encourages, several pushes in.

“It really doesn’t feel like it,” Clarke grits out, grunting and Bellamy can tell she’s pushing once again.

“I promise you are,” Abby assures her, and then Clarke lets out a noise that nearly strangles Bellamy. “You’re crowning Clarke, it’ll just be one or two more contractions now.”

All of the sudden, she is literally sobbing in his arms and Bellamy starts to panic, “Clarke?”

“I--I...it hurts, Mom,” Clarke whines, and then glances up to Bellamy’s face and her eyes are pleading with him to make it stop.

“I know, baby, I know,” Abby promises, “but you have to keep pushing okay, on the next contraction, you have to push, okay?”

She shakes her head swiftly, “hey, you can do this?” Bellamy interrupts her panicked head shaking, “look at everything else you’ve done, you _can_ do this.”

As if Bellamy’s words add steel to her spine that didn’t exist before, she is suddenly determined and bears down with everything she has. “Yes, Clarke, there you go,” Abby encourages, and Clarke can feel it, feel as she opens up and her child slips from her body into this world.

“Easy, Clarke,” Harper instructs, and she’s stiffening again, this time halting in her pushing, “you clear the shoulders?”

“Yep, one more easy push, and you’ll have a baby,” Abby instructs, and the next thing Bellamy knows, Clarke is fully slumping against his lap, her knees hitting the matting created and his ears are assaulted by the screams of their new baby.

“It’s a boy!” Abby announces loudly and Bellamy glances over her Clarke to see the squalling newborn.

“Let me see,” Clarke pleads, Bellamy and Harper help to ease her back, and then Abby is placing the baby against her chest, “he’s perfect.”

“Yes he is,” Abby agrees, and Bellamy’s vision begins to blur as he takes in the sight of his partner and their child for the first time, “10 fingers and 10 toes.” He settles cross legged behind Clarke and she leans back against him and he wraps his arms under hers and together they hold their son for the first time as he nurses.

Harper leaves not long after the afterbirth has been delivered, promising to send Octavia to them. Abby busies herself, tidying up their cabin, and then helping them move to the bed. It’s the first time Bellamy gets to hold his son, and he cuddles him close to his chest. Once Clarke is settled, Abby brings a wet cloth to him and he wipes the baby down gently.

When Octavia arrives, they’ve all settled on the bed as a family of three. Abby tries to blend into the background, seeming to understand how much they need this time as a family, without her input. She props herself on Clarke’s opposite side, and Bellamy feels a sense of calm come over him, practically his whole family in one place.

He wonders if Clarke feels the same, if having her mother here is filling her with the same sense of love and belonging he feels. And then he sees her face, and catches her eyes and he knows that she does feel the same and he can only hope that their summit in the next few days doesn’t ruin her.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy!

Bellamy and Clarke spend the next day in their own home with their child. Everyone has given them the time and space to become a family. It’s bright and early the following morning, the day before the summit is supposed to happen, that reality sets back in.

Raven knocks at their door early, they are already up of course, their son’s needs having them up before the sun this morning. Clarke answers the door, Bellamy on the couch with their boy, “I’ve spoken with Indra and Lexa,” she announces, “they first offered congratulations on the birth of your son, who I believe is still nameless?”

“He will have a naming ceremony in several weeks,” Clarke promises, as is custom within the Coalition. She settles next to Bellamy and glances down ensuring that the baby is still sleeping after his early morning meal.

“Okay,” Raven nods, “we set up the summit for tomorrow. Trikru will arrive later this afternoon to help get everything setup. The rest of the Clan leaders and the Commander’s contingent will arrive early tomorrow.”

“Great, thank you so much for taking care of this,” Bellamy sighs, shifting the babe. Raven’s eyes haven’t left the bundle in his arms, since she arrived, and she startles at his next question, “you want to hold him?”

“No,” she shakes her head, “I’m good, I’ll wait until he can actually hold his head up and I don’t stand a chance of permanently damaging him.” She’d taken the same attitude with Jordan, and none of them had pushed her on it, then. 

Clarke’s not keen to push her on it now either, but she does let her know, “you’re going to have to get over that, soon. You’ll be expected to hold him at the naming ceremony as his Godmother.”

“Godmother? Won’t Octavia have something to say about that?”

“She’s his aunt,” Bellamy shakes his head, “you and Miller, you’re our seconds and you will be this baby’s godparents.”

“Wow,” Raven sighs, awed at their choice, before swallowing forcefully. “Thank you, truly...I promise, I won’t let you down.”

“We know, Raven,” Clarke smiles through her own watery eyes, “okay, you aren’t allowed to cry, because my hormones can’t handle it.”

“Sorry,” she swipes swiftly at her cheeks, before clearing her throat, “okay,” she nods decisively, “Kane and Abby have radioed too, Miller assures me he’ll have the Ark representatives here on time tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Clarke sighs, “Bellamy, you have to go do your job,” Bellamy makes to interrupt, and she cuts him off, “you have to, we are going to be the linchpin between the Ark and the Coalition, so one of us has to do our job. And I...can’t.”

“Clarke,” he sighs long and deep, “you can’t ask me to…”

“I don’t want you to go, but you’ll be less than 100 yards away, and you can stop in and check on us whenever you want,” she promises, “plus you can send anyone by at any point to check up on us.”

“I’m doing this under great protest,” he huffs, snuggling the baby tighter to him again, “I’m going to be back in a couple of hours, and then again at lunch.”

“Of course,” Clarke agrees, taking the baby from him finally, and he rises slowly, “go shower, it’s been days.”

“You are kinda rank dude,” Raven teases, and Bellamy grumbles before heading towards that way.

When he comes from the room 30 minutes later, the people in his home have doubled. Octavia is holding the baby and bouncing gently, while Clarke stands at their fireplace, and Abby is sitting at their table cutting up what appears to be several pieces of fruit. Raven, nowhere to be found.

“Oh yes, there’s your daddy,” Octavia coos at the baby, shuffling over to him, hugging him with one arm. They’ve hugged more since his son’s been born than Bellamy ever remembers them doing before. He can’t say that he hates it.

“Looks like you guys are having a party without me,” he pulls the blanket from near the baby’s face to see his eyes are open, “look who’s awake?”

“Mom and Octavia are going to hang out for a little while, so you don’t have to worry about us, okay?” Clarke smiles, coming to stand under his arm, he does his best not to wince as the muscle pulls gently. She catches it though, eyes him pretty hard, “I thought you said your shoulder was fine.”

“It is,” he nods, “it’s just sore, having it behind my back for several hours the other day wasn’t exactly a comfortable position.”

“Mom, what did you think when you examined Bellamy’s shoulder?” Clarke asks, keeping her eyes locked with his, not turning to look at her mother.

“I haven’t examined his shoulder,” she responds, “but I’ll be happy to give it a look, now.”

“That’d be great thanks,” Clarke smiles sweetly at him, but he can see the undercurrent of annoyance in her eyes.

A rather uncomfortable poking and prodding later, he leaves their cabin with his arm in a makeshift sling with strict orders to use his right side as little as possible. Clarke still kisses him when he leaves, but he knows she’s rather annoyed with him now. Octavia gives him a knowing smirk, always enjoying when he’s the one in trouble.

Thinks in camp are running smoothly, Raven and Octavia having done a decent job of keeping things calm for a day, while he and Clarke were busy. His first mission is to find food. Harper, Monty and Jordan are at a corner table and he joins them with his bowl of oatmeal. “Hey Proud Papa,” Harper greets him with a big smile.

“Congratulations,” Monty tacks on, slipping the spoon between Jordan’s lips, while he’s distracted at the new addition to the table.

“Thanks,” he nods, “how were things yesterday?”

“Things were fine,” they laugh at him, “Raven is Clarke’s second for a reason, she made sure no one slacked off.”

“Good,” he nods again, “we’ve got the crops for the summit meal?”

“Yep,” Monty affirms, “We did really well last harvest, and our crop far surpassed our needs this past winter. We start planting again next week, and our fruit stores are more than sufficient to feed the contingencies arriving tomorrow. Also, Trishanakru and Louwoda Kliron promised to bring some of their harvests as well.”

“Good,” Bellamy says again, and shovels what’s left of his meal down his throat before jumping up again. He’s got a lot of things to check in on, and he doesn’t want to be a part from Clarke and the baby any longer than necessary.

Octavia doesn’t hang around very long, she’s had to babysit Abby long enough. Once Clarke promises that she’ll be okay with her mother and the baby by herself, Octavia takes off to go help with the preparations for the arrivals. So for the first time in three years Clarke finds herself alone with her mother. Well, more like four, her last year in solitary on the Ark didn’t allow for visitation.

“It’s amazing isn’t it?” Clarke comments, she’s nursing the baby, and Abby is puttering around, what passes for a kitchen in their tiny cabin.

“What’s that?” Abby gives up her pretense of cleaning the work space by the sink, and turns toward her daughter.

“That we’re on the ground,” she answers, “we did it, we were successful in bringing our people back to the ground.”

“It is,” Abby agrees, “it’s astounding how well you have done for yourselves. We didn’t expect to find many of you left when we got here, certainly not the functioning society, you seem to have built here.”

“Does that mean you are coming around?” Clarke shifts the now sleeping babe away from her breast, pulling her shirt back in place.

“I’m beginning to understand that you may not need our protection like we predicted,” she conceded, moving closer and then silently asking for permission to sit on the couch, “but he council is not going to just blindly accept us joining a coalition that we know nothing about.”

“Well, what do you want to know?” Clarke nods, allowing her mother to settle nearer to her, she then offers the baby silently.

Abby, with tears in her eyes, gratefully accepts the chance to hold her grandson. Other than the brief moments after his birth, early the morning before, she hasn’t held him. “How exactly it all works? You’ve told us that you are part of this coalition, but what does that really mean?”

“That there are peace treaties in place, Kings and Queens have been overthrown to ensure that what’s left of the human race doesn’t work to kill each other,” Clarke tells her, “Lexa’s only command under the coalition is peace...after that, it is up to each individual clan to work out trade agreements. She’ll step in when there are land disputes, but generally she’s more about the big picture. Clans control their own day-to-day.”

“And would we have to join your clan? Would our council have to be secondary to yours?” Abby asks, and once again it shocks Clarke that she is so focused on the politics. But then she can’t say that she’s necessarily that focused on the personal aspects of the last three years either.

“Some of that will depend on the Commander,” Clarke shares, “but some will be on us to come to an agreement on. But I think for a while your camp will have to defer to ours, it’s what our people will want.”

“And what about all the families that are now physically closer than they’ve been in the last three years? How do we go about reuniting them?”

“If you become part of Skaikru, we’ll have to sit down together and work out a plan,” Clarke concedes, “it’s not an easy hike from here to the Ark, but we don’t have enough vehicles to transport everyone at once.”

“And our family?” Abby finally moves her eyes away from her grandson to study her daughter, “How do we reconcile that?”

“One day at a time Mom,” Clarke swallows the lump in her throat, “but you’re here, and you’re holding my son in your hands.”

“It’s remarkable,” Abby smiles at her, “I’m so proud of you, Clarke...your dad would be too.”

“I know,” she agrees, “and I know the last time you tried to--anyway, I realized somewhere along the way that you were doing what you thought was right, you thought Jaha was on your side.”

“I truly did,” Abby sighs, “I never thought he would go to such extreme lengths. Once we lost communication with you, he became more and more unhinged. Kane ended up floating him when he tried to send himself to the ground in a nuclear warhead. He never recovered from Wells’s death.”

“It was hard, I got lost for a moment, death didn’t faze me, but Bellamy saw that and--”

“I guess I owe him a lot,” Abby muses, cutting off her sentence, and Clarke could see how she was struggling to hear about how hard things had been for her daughter.

“He’s a wonderful man,” Clarke promises, “and speaking of wonderful men, we talked it over and we are going to name the baby Jake.”

“Oh Clarke,” Abby’s lips pulled down and she swallowed back tears, “he would’ve loved that.”

“Good,” she nods determined, “you can’t tell anyone yet...he has to have a naming ceremony before anyone can use his name.”

“Another Grounder custom?”

“Until recently, many babies born on earth struggled to survive, if they made it to six weeks, they were deemed strong enough to receive a name,” Clarke explains, “between our technology and medical knowledge, Mt. Weather and Skaikru have cut down significantly the newborn mortality rate.”

Bellamy arrives home then, bringing lunch with him. “How are we here?”

“Good,” Clarke’s short with him, still mad that he hadn’t gotten his shoulder looked at sooner, but she doesn’t want him to worry about her and her mother.

“Good,” he nods, he sets a basket on the table and then goes to grab metal plate from the shelf above the sink, “They were serving venison with vegetables and bread, so I figured I’d bring us lunch.”

“My favorite,” Clarke sighs, and Bellamy moves back to take his son from Abby. “We have got to stop holding him.”

“I haven’t held him all morning,” he pouts, settling on their couch as Clarke and Abby move to the table.

“Are you not eating with us?” she laughs.

“I only have one good hand, and it’s currently occupied,” he retorts. She ruffles his hair, and places a kiss against his temple before gingerly moving to the table with her mom.

“This looks good,” Abby comments when Clarke serves her plate.

“More appetizing than protein paste,” Bellamy grumbles, “so, Abby I spoke with Miller this morning, he says that Kane is still not sold on the idea of the Coalition.”

“I should speak with him before the summit tomorrow,” she sighs, “from what I’ve seen, we definitely need to reconsider our plans.”

“Raven’s got the radios set up in the dropship if you don’t mind heading over there after lunch?”

“Of course,” she nods.

“Good.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one isn't as long, and I don't feel like it's very good, but it's a transition to get us to the summit. Can't believe I've made it to day 15/31

“It’s amazing Marcus,” Abby sighs into the handset in Raven’s workshop. “They really have built an entire functioning society here.”

“That’s what I’m gathering,” Kane replies back, “I just don’t know that we can trust this coalition, we don’t know anything about the Commander.”

“From what Clarke says, she’s a very fair leader. She helps maintain the peace so that all the clans can co-exist.”

“I guess at the point we’ll just have to wait and see what type of deal she’ll bring to the summit,” he seems to be in an agreeable mood, but Bellamy is sure it’s only because he thinks he’s having a private conversation. If he knew that he was listening in, he’s not sure that Kane would be so apt to try.

“Stay safe and we’ll see you tomorrow morning,” Abby signs off, glancing back towards Bellamy, “he seems to be coming around.”

“We’ll see,” Bellamy grunts, “he wasn’t exactly the most lenient council member.”

“The Ark council had to be strict to ensure our survival,” Abby replies, firm, “we debated for years amending the one child law, but we couldn’t see a way out of where we were. If we suddenly allowed second children, then what would we say to all the women who we’d forced to abort their babies.”

“I don’t know, but making orphans of the children on the Ark wasn’t exactly a stellar move either,” he sighs, and then nods his thanks to Raven. Motioning for Abby to follow, “Harper set you up in Medbay last night?”

“Yes,” she agrees, “it wasn’t the most comfortable sleeping arrangements, but it is a lovely facility they’ve put together there.”

“It was mainly Clarke and Nyko, that worked on the designs,” he smiles, thinking of how many times she’d made him redo certain windows and doors, allowing for optimal traffic flow and patient privacy. 

“We’ve got incoming,” crackles from the radio at Bellamy’s hip and he spins on his heel, heading for the main gate, “Trikru delegation is here.”

“Indra,” Bellamy grabs at her forearm in a handshake, once the gates have opened, “Nyko.”

“Bellamy,” Nyko returns, “how’s Clarke?”

“Had a baby not long after you last left,” he smiles broad, quickly enveloped in a bear hug by the larger man.

“ _Spechou_ ,” Indra gives a rare smile and the others in her contingent echo her sentiment, “I assume Mother and baby are well?”

“Very well,” he nods, motioning for them Abby, “This is Dr. Abigail Griffin, Clarke’s mother and one of the representatives for the crashed Ark Space Station.”

“Dr. Griffin,” Indra greets, reaching out to shake her hand.

“Indra and Lincoln are the delegates of Trikru,” Bellamy explains, “geographically our closest ally and they hold the majority of our trade deals. Jasper and Raven set up your usual accommodations.”

“We shall settle in then we will begin preparing the food for the Commander’s arrival tomorrow,” Indra decides, “and our warriors will help fortify your walls.”

Bellamy nods, and then motions for Abby to follow as he, Indra, and Nyko head towards the dropship. “I would like to see the _goufa_ ,” Nyko mentions as they near the mouth of the ship, and Bellamy agrees, motioning for Abby to follow him back toward his and Clarke’s home.

“How was your first meeting?” Indra questions once they’ve moved out of earshot.

“Not great,” he motions to his slung up shoulder, “seems I’m not as welcomed among my people as some had hoped.”

“They did not shoot you, at the least,” Indra smirked, she’s always enjoyed the misfortunes of the Skaikru delinquents a little too much.

“This is true,” he agrees.

“Do you think they will be a problem?”

“I don’t know,” he sighs, heavily, sinking into his cushioned chair, “Abby seems to be coming around to the idea, but Kane, their chancellor, is going to take some convincing.”

“How do we convince him?”

“I’m hoping him coming here, and seeing everything we’ve accomplished and built will go a long way in our favor. His real issue is going to be how young Lexa is.”

“She has the wisdom of the previous Commanders, her age is of no significance,” Indra intones at him.

“I know,” he doesn’t entirely know, he just knows she acts much older than any of their delinquents of a similar age, but he also knows their lives on the ground were much more difficult than their own on the Ark, and he’s not even from one of the privileged stations.

Clarke smiles as Nyko bounces her baby boy gently, “He does appear quite healthy,” he remarks, “and how are you?”

“Still sore, but I’m trying to take it easy,” she replies.

“You should for several weeks,” he nods, and then places the baby back into his crib, “that means letting Bellamy, Miller, and Raven handle the summit tomorrow.”

“We’ll see how that goes,” Clarke waves him off, “why don’t you take my Mom over to Medbay and show her some of the treatments we’ve been working on?”

“Trying to get rid of us?” he jokes, and Abby begins to argue.

“Yes, actually,” she sighs, slumping a little, “I’m tired, and my baby is sleeping, so I’d like to do the same.”

“Of course, we will leave you,” he agrees.

When Bellamy gets home with dinner in hand, Clarke has barely opened her eyes. The baby hasn’t made an angry sound as yet, but she can hear his snuffles as he sleeps, so she keeps drifting back off. He’s quiet as he sets about getting their meal ready, but not quiet enough, because that’s when the baby finally begins to squawk.

“Hey buddy,” he whispers, Clarke hasn’t moved, and she’s not keen to, so she lets Bellamy handle it, “we don’t want to wake Mommy.” His reply is an actual cry, “I’m not going to take that personally, because I know you just want to eat.”

“Ha,” she snorts, sitting up gently against the headboard, “he definitely has to be changed first. I smelt it the last time I was semi-conscious, but figured if it wasn’t bothering him...”

“Good call,” he laughs, he’s miraculously dexterous with only one arm and hand, scooping the baby to rest against his forearm, bringing him to her. Before going to their pile of cloth diapers, grabbing the clean one on top, and then dampening a square of flannel to bring to her as well, “how was Nyko’s visit?”

“Good,” she nods, “I sent him off with Mom to give me some peace and quiet.”

“Sorry about that, he wanted to check up on you, and I needed to speak with Indra alone,” he takes the soiled diaper and flannel from her, dropping them on the pile of dirty clothes before joining them on the bed as she starts feeding.

“How’d that go?”

“Well, I think. Everything is all set for Lexa’s arrival, the rest of the clans should be arriving before her in the morning,” he reports.

“What did Miller say?” 

“He’s planning to leave before first light, they’ll be here ahead of the first delegation,” he sighs, “how was the little man today?”

“Great, he slept and ate, pooped a little,” she giggles, “you know, the real life of the party.”

“Of course he is,” Bellamy smiles, scooting closer to them, so he can peer down at the baby, “he’s going to steal the show before we know it.”

“No he won’t, he’s staying this little and safe here forever,” she argues, finally moving him away from her breast as he finishes his meal.

“Yes ma’am.”

Bellamy is the only one up early with the baby the next morning, Clarke having done her part and passing back out, when lights bounce off their windows, he knows by the directionality of the lights that it has to be the truck arriving from the Ark and he takes a few more minutes to rock his son before heading out to greet Miller, Lincoln and the contingent they have brought. He deposits the baby back in his crib, thankful he seems to be satisfied for now. Hoping not to disturb her, he leaves a quick note on the table before grabbing his jacket and heading out.

He shouldn’t be surprised to see they’ve brought a few extra guards than their last meeting, but somehow he is. Kane and his men stand near the back of the dropship as Miller and Lincoln jump down from the front of the truck. “Chancellor Kane, good to see you again,” Bellamy has left the sling at home, and reaches out to shake his hand in a formal greeting this time.

“I’d like to say the same, but it’s too dark to actually see you,” Kane grumbles, “was there a reason we needed to be here so early?”

“All delegates should be present before the Commander arrives,” Bellamy nods, “We felt it prudent to have you in camp where we could offer protection until the summit.”

“Very well,” he sighs, “is there somewhere we can rest until a decent hour?”

“Dr. Griffin is already set up in one of our guest quarters, I will be happy to show you to her,” Bellamy often surprises himself with how diplomatically he can handle things sometimes, “I’m sure she’ll be pleased to see you.”

“Yes.”

“Great,” he leads the way through the darkness, their paths lit by torches this time of night, guards roaming every now and then ensuring the safety of their camp, “breakfast starts in an hour’s time, Dr. Griffin can show you the way to the mess hall. The other contingencies will begin arriving around that time and the Commander and her men will arrive shortly before noon time.”

“Thank you,” Kane nods, ushering his guards into the door Bellamy indicates, “shall we see you at breakfast?”

“Not this morning, but should you need anything, Miller will be available, as well as Raven Reyes.”

After assuring that Miller had everything under control still, he went back home. He was going to let Miller and Raven handle everything as long as possible, choosing to spend the time with his family until he was absolutely needed.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Officially past the halfway point in my December-post-a-thon. Anyway, one step closer to that summit actually happening.

It’s not nearly a long enough morning, but Bellamy finds himself back in front of the Dropship as the sun is nearing its highest point. Miller stands a step away at his back left, Raven next to him. Azgeda has yet to arrive, Bellamy had radioed Roan when they didn’t arrive at the agreed upon time, when he didn’t receive an answer he sent a small party out in the rover to look. The other delegates are lined up in a semi-circle, greeting the Commander as she makes her way through the camp. She sits high atop her horse, the rest of her contingent walking, showing her position of power.

Abby and Kane stand in the mouth of the Dropship taking in the pageantry that accompanies the young leader. As she dismounts, her diminutive form is further proof that she is an unlikely leader. However, the delegates all kneel and bow their heads before her.

“Where is King Roan of Azgeda?” she asks, glancing across her people, not seeing the leader of the Ice Nation.

“We have sent out a party to look,” Bellamy answers.

“And your partner?” she meets his eyes, as she motions for the everyone of the delegates to return to their feet.

“As you know, our son was born just two days ago, she is resting,” he smiles, letting her see the joy at the birth of his son.

“Was it a difficult birth?” she seems perplexed.

“No,” he shakes his head.

“Then why is she not here?” Lexa asks again. Bellamy is confused, and it most show on his face, because she continues, “warriors go into battle mere hours after giving birth _Skaibandrona_. She should be here for this summit.”

“She is in recovery,” Abby speaks over Bellamy’s next refusal, “she is not a warrior going into battle, she is a child.”

“She is no more a child than I,” Lexa refutes, barely glancing at her before turning back to Bellamy, “who dares speak to me this way?”

“Dr. Abigail Griffin, council member of Ark Station,” Bellamy informs her.

“And _Nomon_ to Clarke?”

“ _Sha_ ,” he agrees, “a highly trained healer from the Ark, she only wishes the best for her daughter.” He chooses to focus on Abby’s wishes for Clarke, other than his own, but he doesn’t want her to put too much strain on her yet, either.

“She shall be excused from the ceremonies, but I expect her at the summit,” Lexa finally declares after twisting her lips for several moments, “shall we eat?”

“Of course,” Bellamy nods, since Skaikru is hosting the summit, he has become the de facto leader of everything for the day. Miller and Raven, with help from Lincoln, Octavia, and Indra had put together a meal fit for their Commander and he couldn’t wait to dig in, himself.

He’s not happy with her command, but he doesn’t let it show in front of her. He and Lexa have had their issues over the years, Clarke always playing mediator between them. She seems to be softer in her judgments of Skaikru whenever Clarke is around, and Bellamy thinks it’s because she was initially attracted to Clarke. Clarke laughs in his face whenever he brings it up, but he still thinks he saw something early on. Lexa has never even hinted at anything of the sort, but she does often allow Clarke more leeway than any other delegate from any other clan.

He sends Harper to update Clarke, before following the delegates into the mess hall. They’ve rearranged the tables into one long one running the length of the room. Most of Skaikru will have to find their own meals, as the food is specifically selected and prepared for the ceremonies. He settles in his seat to Lexa’s immediate left, since he is the delegate for the clan that his hosting the summit.

It’s as they are finishing up their meal, beginning to prepare for the move to council chambers in the Dropship that the party returns, Azgeda in tow. It causes enough of a commotion that the majority of people move out to the open area of the camp, “Skaikru, we come bearing gifts,” Roan announces, and Bellamy can see that several people are tied and being forced to walk behind the horses he and his advisors ride in on.

“Cut them loose,” Kane demands, when he sees the individuals. Bellamy easily places Charles Pike, and he recognizes several faces from the Ark, but he can’t place names.

“I don’t take orders from...whomever you are,” Roan snorts, turning back to Bellamy, “I assume this is what you were radioing about several days ago,” at his nod, Roan turns to look at his people and gives a slight head bow, signifying to cut the people loose, “they were not gracious guests on our lands.”

“You approached with spears and arrows pointed at our children,” Charles Pike announces as he pulls the cloth gag from his mouth, “You injured several of our people and killed two.”

“After your people and your _guns_ killed two of my best warriors,” Roan retorts, “we have brought the leaders of this group, but I have a hundred more under guard in Azgeda.”

“Farm station made it to the ground?” Kane pushes to the front of the group, to hug his former friend, and Bellamy watches the scene hands on hips, Lexa has also joined the crowd, and he can see she is displeased by what she hears.

“Yes, everyone survived the trip, we only lost the two after we opened the doors,” he’s gruff, directing his venomous tone at Roan.

“Enough,” Lexa interrupts before Roan can shoot back another comment. “Shall we give you a moment to get things in order?” Bellamy nods when she turns towards him, “Summit is to be held in one hour.” She announces loudly, and people begin to disperse back to whatever they were doing before. Many heading back inside to continue partaking of Monty’s moonshine.

“Bellamy Blake,” Pike smiles when they are left mostly alone, “It’s good to see you still alive, you were one of my more promising students.”

“Thank you,” he can’t help but smile, for as rough as his childhood was, he always enjoyed school and strove to be the best student he could be in the hopes that he would be able to do more than work and live on Factory Station for the rest of his life. “Let’s get some food for our guests,” he nods to Sterling, making a pass on his guard rotation. “Raven, you mind if we use your shop?” 

“All yours,” she turns to lead the way.

“What is going on here?” Pike asks, once they have closed the doors, “why are we surrounded by Grounders like they are friends?”

“They _are_ friends,” Bellamy huffs, not believing he is having this conversation for the second time in less than five days, “we have a treaty with the Commander’s Coalition, there is peace on this earth.”

“These are not peaceful people,” Pike spits, “they aimed weapons at harmless children.”

“And they sent harmless children to the ground,” Bellamy pointed at Kane and Abby angrily, “we’ve all done things we regret. I understand we’re asking you to have a lot of faith in something that you know nothing about, but I _promise_ you this is a time to have that faith.”

“What exactly are you asking?” Pike sighs.

“They want us to join the Skaikru delegation as part of the Commander’s Coalition,” Kane supplies, “we were approached not long after we landed.”

“Better it was me than any of the Grounders,” Bellamy grumbles.

“Why? You said they are a peaceful people,” Pike snaps sarcastic.

“They’ve achieved that peace through force, Lexa will not hesitate to wipe out what is left of Alpha Station, and she will gladly let Roan handle Farm Station, too,” Bellamy tells them, “it’s decision time...you either become part of our Clan, join Skaikru and follow the laws of the Coalition or you go to war.”

“What kind of war are they going to mount with spears and arrows, when we have guns and shock batons,” Pike laughs, “it’ll be a slaughter.”

“Yes it will,” Clarke agrees, shuffling into their meeting and Bellamy immediately moves to her side as she gingerly walks, “but not in your favor.”

“What are you doing here?” Abby demands, before Bellamy has the chance, moving to stand next to her daughter, “you should be resting.”

“Didn’t you hear? I’m expected at the summit,” Clarke rolls her eyes, sinking gratefully onto a stool Raven drags over, “imagine my surprise when I step out the front door and Octavia nearly runs me over to say that it’s been delayed with the arrival of more Sky people.”

“Clarke Griffin, another promising student, seems you were well prepared for the ground,” Pike puffs out his chest, bragging on himself.

“It was a basic foundational knowledge that barely got us through the first week,” Clarke retorted, “Monty was excellent at identifying non-poisonous vegetation, but I put that down to his schooling on Farm, Bellamy and Miller set up decent guard rotations, but that was because of their previous jobs aboard the Ark. I handled all the medical issues I could, but we were still woefully unprepared. Raven’s arrival took care of any mechanical issues we came across. After that it was trial by fire.”

“So none of the lessons on fire building were put to use?” Pike questioned.

“Sure, but anybody can pick up a tablet on the Ark and learn that,” Bellamy shrugged, “the point Clarke is trying to make is that, no matter how much knowledge you think you have about the ground, it’s not going to be enough. We learned that the hard way, the question is are you going to learn from our lessons, or are you going to choose to learn them the hard way as well?”

“What exactly does becoming part of the Coalition look like?” Abby asks, Bellamy already knows she’s going to be the way to get their message across, she’s not the only parent on the Ark whose child is living within Skaikru, but she’s the only one in a position to do something about reuniting them.  
“It’s a peace treaty,” Bellamy starts, “ensures that no one will attack our camp unless we attack them first. It also allows us to form trade agreements with any of the clans.”

“We’ve received furs from Trikru the last two harvests, we recently signed a new agreement to allow that to keep happening. Monty has been trading his knowledge of moonshine and crossbreeding plants,” Clarke continues.

“We don’t know how they’ll work out land agreements, or if Lexa will demand you become part of our existing Clan, but we do know that if you don’t agree to this, she will not hesitate to take out both your stations,” Bellamy finishes.

“So today’s summit is to try and come to an agreement about whether or not we are going to join this Coalition?” Pike surmises, hands upon his hips.

“And I think we should join,” Abby nods, “there are some questions that need answering, but overall I think based on what we see around us, this society you’ve built here, is proof enough that this Coalition works.”

“But we don’t know all the rules, will we have to be a part of the Skaikru, will Skaikru be dictating laws to us?” Kane asks.

“ _If_ the coalition determines that you must be part of Skaikru, we will make space on our council to give you equal say,” Bellamy assures, “I’m more concerned about space, obviously the stations themselves can’t be moved but Alpha is on Trikru land and Farm is in Azgeda, they may not want our people on their lands.”

“But overall we agree that we _should_ join this coalition?” Abby questions.

“I’m not so sure,” Pike cuts in.

“Well, again, we are not sacrificing our camp to save _you_ ,” Bellamy forces out, “we have this functioning society, we will not sacrifice that for a group of people who chose to send us to the ground.”

“ _You_ made that decision all on your own,” Kane bit back.

“Maybe I did,” Bellamy fought again, “but the rest of my people didn’t have a choice, and they are my priority now.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the Summit isn't too bad...it's because we have another one looming on the horizon.
> 
> Day 17 of 31.

When they finally head to the Summit, Clarke is pissed at the fact she is moving at all. She is still incredibly sore and while she has been up and moving around their tiny cabin, she hasn’t had to walk very far. Now she has walked several hundred yards around camp and she wants nothing more than to sit down, plus she can already tell her boobs are going to hurt before this whole thing is over. She just hopes that the baby doesn’t get hungry before she’s done, but Octavia has strict instructions to get her if that is the case.

It’s not until they get to the mouth of the dropship that she realizes she has to climb the ladder to get to their meeting space. She pauses, and Bellamy’s hand comes up to her lower back, “what’s up?”

“I’m not going to be able to go up the ladder,” she murmurs, several of the other delegates are bypassing them to climb up, “to be honest, I’m really not enjoying walking around camp right now either.”

“Dammit,” he grumbles, turning to Miller, “Can you go see if Raven still has that pulley system rigging?” Miller agrees, jogging back towards Raven’s shop. “I knew I should have put my foot down with Lexa.”

“It’s fine really,” Clarke sighs.

“Honey, you really shouldn’t be here,” Abby chimes in, having lurked on their conversation. Clarke and Bellamy are used to traveling and moving about as a pair, maybe even a quartet if Raven and Miller are needed, especially when it comes to Coalition business, but now they have Miller, Abby, Kane, and Pike following their every move.

“I know that Mom,” she rolls her eyes, “but we’re trying to preserve what is left of our people, and the Commander demanded my presence.”

“Thank you, Raven!” Clarke exclaims to no one in particular, when she sees her and Miller coming towards them. Raven smiles, heading up the ladder and getting the pulley system set up. Finally making it up to their meeting space, there isn’t a seat left as they have always been first come, first serve. Bellamy comes up the ladder not even a full 30 seconds behind her, and is immediately ordering the Flokru ambassador from his seat, ushering Clarke into it.

Before Bellamy can ask if she is okay again, Lexa is descending from the third level, causing everyone to stand again. Normally Clarke would join, but she doesn’t physically feel as if she can, Lexa pauses momentarily meeting her eyes, before nodding in understanding, if only she’d been understanding before. Gustus stands guard behind her, striking an intimidating pose, but mostly everyone is used to him, so he tends to fade into the background. 

“This summit has been called today because several more people have fallen from the sky,” Lexa announces, as if everyone isn’t already aware of the purpose. “I have offered them a place in the Coalition as a part of the already existing Skaikru. Clarke and Bellamy have assured me that these newcomers will abide by our laws and customs.”

“Where will they live?” Echo, Roan’s second and Azgeda delegate, asks, “part of their ship landed within our borders, are we expected to give up our lands for them?”

“Trikru has graciously allowed all Ark citizens to live within their borders,” Lexa reports, “however, borders have not yet been established with the current camp being built.”

“And the giant hunk of metal they’ve set down in my kingdom?” Roan questions, his aire of annoyance ever present in his tone and mannerisms.

“We can scrap it and then work on breaking it down into parts,” Clarke offers, “but that will take several months to even a year to get it completely removed.”

“Now, wait a second, there are valuable resources in that station,” Pike pipes up, angrily and Bellamy is quick to cut him a look.

“Resources I’m sure you’ll have no problem scavenging before we start breaking down,” Bellamy retorts.

“As when Skaikru initially joined the Coalition there will be growing pains, but we hope that will a little patience and a lot of _restraint_ ,” Clarke pauses to glance around the room, “I’m sure we can continue to live in a peaceful co-existence.”

“I agree,” Lexa smiles softly at her and Bellamy is once again reminded that she has a soft spot for Clarke, “therefore I am allowing that Skaikru will now have two camps, with that they will have to lose one of their current delegates and choose a new one to represent their new camp.” And now Bellamy knows why Lexa was insistent that Clarke be at this meeting, he is sure that she prefers Clarke to remain a delegate. “I understand there will be a naming ceremony in several weeks?”

“Yes, our son was born just two days ago,” Clarke answers.

“Good, he shall be named in Polis. We will have another summit in six weeks, naming the newest member of Skaikru as well as the newest delegate to the Coalition.” Lexa decrees, and just like that men and women are moving about.

“That’s it?” Kane asks, Abby takes the seat next to Clarke as several delegates begin descending the ladder.

“For now,” Bellamy sighs, resting a hand against Clarke’s shoulder. “I’m sure tensions are going to rise between now and the next Summit.”

“Definitely,” Clarke sinks back into her chair, “so after everyone clears out, we’ll need to decide on delegates.”

“Kane is the Chancellor of the Ark,” Pike announces, “he’s the obvious choice.”

“The leader of the Clan doesn’t necessarily have to be the delegate,” Clarke argues, “oftentimes delegates spend more time away from their clans than with them.”

“Yet you and Bellamy seem to be the leaders here as well as delegates to the Coalition,” Abby remarks.

“Many delegates travel to us because of the knowledge other people in our camp have,” Bellamy says, “even if we were to travel to them, they still wouldn’t benefit from our knowledge, without us bringing an entire contingent with us.” 

“So, the question becomes, do you want to be Chancellor or do you want to be a delegate?” 

“I still think we should reconsider whether we even want to be a part of this Coalition,” Pike interrupts.

“We haven’t had an introduction,” Lexa speaks then, and Bellamy can say he hadn’t even noticed her lack of an exit, “even if I were to forbid my armies from attacking you, I do not think you would make it here without help.”

“Charles Pike,” he puffs out his chest, “I think you underestimate the will to survive found within the citizens of the Ark.”

“I’m well aware,” Lexa returns, “Skaikru took 300 of my soldiers, within their first several fortnights; however, numbers are still greatly in our favor. Clarke, if I may?” Lexa indicates the ladder to the upper level indicating a wish to speak with her alone.

“We can talk,” Clarke smirks, “but is not going to be up there.”

“Clarke!” Octavia’s voice suddenly floats up from the floor below.

“What’s wrong, O?” Bellamy hurries to the ladder to look down at his sister.

“Nothing Bell,” she soothes, “your son is hungry though, and I promised Clarke I’d get her.”

“You are welcome to join me at my cabin,” Clarke tells Lexa, and Bellamy is back to help her up and then lower her by pulley back to the ground level.

“He looks strong,” Lexa compliments. He’s calm when Clarke takes him from Harper, she thanks Harper and she beats a hasty retreat, when she sees Lexa follow her into the cabin.

“Thank you,” Clarke wishes the compliment were a little more personal but she also understands that Lexa and the grounders don’t necessarily value the same things that Skaikru does.

“Are you sure that these new Skaikru are going to be loyal to our Coalition?” she cuts straight to the chase. Clarke, is honestly shocked at how fast she makes her point, and that she’s even bringing this point up at all, proves how much she values their spot within the alliance.

“I have confidence in Alpha Station, my mom and Kane, I think they’ve come around to see what we’ve accomplished with your help,” Clarke surmises, “I think Pike, leading Farm Station, might be a bigger issue, but with the next six weeks I think we can bring them around.”

“In the meantime, Azgeda wants them off their land,” Lexa lowers the boom, her whole reason for wanting to meet, it’s what she had expected anyway when Lexa had only allowed them two camps. 

“We’ll send a party out to help bring the rest of our people into TriKru territory,” Clarke agrees.

“Then I shall see you in Polis,” Lexa nods, “and Clarke…” she pauses, before completely exiting the cabin, “congratulations on the baby, he really does seem like a very strong boy.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is short, and a bit of a transition...I'm thinking there will be like ~2 more chapters.
> 
> Also, I'm terrible at writing conflict.
> 
> This makes day 18!

Over the following weeks, they do work quickly to move the people from Farm Station to Alpha Station and the Dropship camp. Skaikru put together a solid team of guards to help move them. Monty is placed on the team, and is shocked to find his parents with the camp.

Things have been going well for the kids of Skaikru, several of them have reunited with their parents. Others have been excited to share the knowledge they’ve learned on the ground. Clarke and Bellamy of course, have had the pleasure of watching their boy grow and change, what seems like, daily. At just shy of a month old, he’s gained enough control of his head that he lifts it when he hears his dad come through the door, searching for him.

Bellamy has been traveling back and forth to, what is now being called, Arkadia. He usually takes the Rover out with the sun and arrives back in the late afternoon, leaving enough time to spend time as a family before they have to put him down for the evening. Clarke took two weeks to recover from giving birth, but since then has been up and around camp with the baby strapped to her chest. 

She checks in on MedBay every morning, everyone is doing well and they haven’t had any major medical mishaps, so she’s able to check in on the few coughs and sniffles that show up easily. Harper has it easily under control and Clarke is thankful that she’s actually able to not be covering shifts for the moment. 

Abby has taken to traveling with Bellamy most days, preferring to stay close to her daughter and grandson now that they’ve been given back to her. Kane and Pike seem to be working well with Skaikru, and Bellamy is positive they are not going to be an issue when it comes to finalizing their place within the Coalition.

And then just two days shy of leaving for the summit, Pike goes rogue. He tries to overtake the council at Arkadia and insists on fighting for their land, now that their fences have been secured. That night Bellamy returns to the Dropship Camp with his head hung low.

“What happened?” Clarke asks as soon as she sees him enter their front door. She’d gathered bits and pieces over the radio that Kane was trying Pike for treason under the exodus charter, but she wasn’t completely up-to-date on Ark politics, to know what exactly that meant. Judging by Bellamy’s haggard appearance it can’t be good though.

“Pike’s dead,” he sighs, dropping onto their couch heavily, reaching to unlace his boots, “he was found guilty of treason for trying to mount a coup and steal the entire weapons cache.”

“And his sentence was death?” Clarke is shocked, in space she understood, but on the ground numbers matter.

“Apparently that is what the exodus charter states,” he leans back as she wraps an arm around his shoulder, forcing him to lean slightly into her, she envelopes him. “Two others from Farm Station were also executed, Kane thinks the rest will fall in line now.”

“Who wouldn’t?” she grumbles, “did Mom come back with you?”

“No, she and Kane were both taking it pretty hard, and she didn’t agree that execution should be the punishment.”

“Who would’ve ever thought that Councilor Abigail Griffin would be the first to adapt to this new way of life?” Clarke gives an ironic chuckle.

“Me,” Bellamy shrugs, and he can feel the incredulous look she gives him, “c’mon, the second she knew you were still alive? She was hooked, would do anything to keep you in her life. Can’t say I really blame her either,” he turns as best he can from his position to grin at her.

“Ditto, you big goof,” she actually laughs this time, “so are they all set to head out tomorrow then?”

“Think so,” he nods, “told them we’d be there when the sun came up.”

“Great,” she smirks, “now, what do you think the deal is with Kane and my mom?”

“Ugh,” he groans, “I don’t want to think about that,” he grumbles.

“Well you aren’t supposed to picture it,” she laughs as his face twists up even more, “but seriously, do you think they are?”

“Are what?”

“A couple?” she groans, “you know what I mean!”

“I know,” he chuckles, “and I don’t know Clarke, I guess it’s possible, can’t say I’ve spent that much time thinking about it. I definitely got those vibes when they had me handcuffed on the Ark several weeks ago, but I haven’t really seen it since.”

Their conversation is then interrupted by crying and Bellamy jumps up to get the baby from his crib. “Hey buddy,” Bellamy brings him to his chest, but that seems to anger him more so he holds him out in front of him, one hand supporting his bottom, the other bracing his head, and the baby grins at him, “you just wanted to see Daddy, huh?”

“He’s missed you,” Clarke remarks quietly, “I’ve missed you too,” she tacks on.

“I know, me too,” he agrees, “but the good news is, once the summit is over, I’ll no longer be a delegate and then I’ll be home _all_ the time. The real question is...do you think the grounders are ready for the one, two punch that is the Griffin women?”

“So they agreed? Mom’s going to be our second delegate?”

“Kane seemed to agree that it made the most sense,” he nods, “feels like it splits the leaders up and allows both camps to run effectively. Now back to our original point...you ready for Daddy to be home all the time?” he softens his voice when he talks to their son, and it makes her heart melt every time.

“Of course he is,” she sighs, “did you know he starts looking around every time we hear one of the vehicles? He knows that’s how you come and go from camp.”

“That’s cause he’s the smartest boy,” Bellamy coos, “aren’t you?”

“Of course he is, look at his parents.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is super short, but I feel that I am running out of story to tell, so next up will be the epilogue. This has really and truly just been a writing exercise for me, to help me write more. I'm glad you all have enjoyed it. I'll be posting again tomorrow and then I am back to _Look Who's Talking_ hopefully for the rest of the month.

They are up early the next morning, just as the sun is barely peeking over the horizon. Indra, Lincoln and Octavia are already waiting at the gate with their contingent when they open it up. The baby seems thrilled as Bellamy gives the truck some gas, squealing at the noise of the engine revving. He’s sitting upright in Clarke’s lap taking in his surroundings as they fly through nature. And between the two of them grinning and giggling, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen a more beautiful sight. 

They have to stop at Arkadia to pick up Kane, Abby, and a few of their guards. Clarke slides across the bench seat, right up next to him and Abby climbs in the passenger seat. “Good morning,” she greets them softly, and the bang on the back window lets them know that everyone is settled.

Arriving at Polis is such an experience for those from Arkadia. Abby is in awe as they ride through the streets, taking in the stalls, people selling everything from clothes and food to other hand crafted goods. “This is better than the market on the Ark.”

“Yep,” Clarke grins, “this is how we first got our goods when we were still working out our trade agreements.”

They are heralded into Polis, as are the other clans when they arrive, many of Lexa’s guards show them to their rooms. Clarke is pleasantly surprised to see that their room is actually quite large, with a tiny attached space that houses what passes a crib.

Abby and Kane are put in a room next to theirs, seeing as how they do not protest the arrangement, that seems to answer Clarke’s questions about their relationship status. They have a large meal that night to signify the start of the ceremonies.

“I’ve got to figure out how to make one of these,” Bellamy marvels at the seat they’ve produced for the baby, it’s padded all around, and boxes him in, allowing him to be level with the table. He’s still months away from eating any kind of solid foods, but it’s fun to have him be part of the festivities all the same.

“I’m sure you can,” Clarke smiles at his enthusiasm. It’s clear that he is ready to enjoy being a regular citizen. Clarke can’t really blame him either, if she thought that she could get away with passing along her position as a delegate she would. Lexa would never approve of it though.

“I’m so glad that all of you could join us this evening,” Lexa begins a toast, and the entire table quiets, it’s long meant to hold delegates from all the clans as well as many of their seconds. “Tomorrow we are going to continue to grow our Coalition, Skaikru will be adding Arkadia to their ranks, and we will be having a naming ceremony for the newest Skaikru member.”

They get a lot of endearing looks, babies are valued so much in the grounder culture as so many die not long after birth, Clarke herself even turns to look at her son. He’s dozing quietly in his new seat, completely unaware of the goings on around him. Bellamy grips her hand tightly behind the baby’s seat, and she glances up to meet his eyes. And she realizes she is happy and at peace for the first time since she learned of the oxygen scrubber failures onboard the Ark.

The meal leaves them with full bellies and sleepy eyes. Everyone is ushered to their chambers to sleep off the food. When morning dawns, Clarke is already up, feeding the baby, and Bellamy crawls out of bed, to join them in the window seat, overlooking Polis and the rest of earth that stretches out past the city limits.

“I can’t believe he officially get’s a name today,” Clarke murmurs, turning her head, to lean her’s against his temple.

“He’s growing up so fast already,” Bellamy agrees, and then, “are we still sticking with what we agreed to?”

“Yes,” she nods. And later that morning when Lexa asks, “what name is given to this child?”

“Jacob Griffin Blake,” has never sounded so good. “Jake,” Bellamy tacks on for good measure, Lexa nods and then draws a line down the baby’s forehead with black ink, cementing not only his name, but him as a member of the Commander’s Coalition. Bellamy and Clarke are also adorned with the same black line, and then it is Abby and Kane’s turn. 

“Do accept the position as part of the 13th Clan?” Lexa questions them, and they both murmur their agreements.

“As the newest members, who shall accept the seal of the Coalition?” Bellamy had forewarned Kane that there would be a branding process, so the man easily stuck out his forearm. The brand matching Bellamy’s and each of the other Clan leaders. “And the new delegates for Skaikru?”

Clarke handed the newly named Jake to Bellamy, stepping forward with her hand clasped within her mothers. “Abby Griffin and I, Clarke Griffin, will be the delegates for Skaikru.”

Lexa looks pleased at this announcement and bows her head in acknowledgement. “Very well, the rest of you are dismissed, only delegates are needed from this moment forward.”

And just like that it’s almost like the last 2 months never happened, Clarke is once again seated at the large table as the delegates discuss the upcoming harvest season, how best to trade crops and which clans are best suited to continue exploration beyond the coalition borders.


	13. Chapter 13

It’s on Jake’s first birthday that Clarke truly feels like they have firmly established their society once again. Bellamy has taken over as their camp leader, they thought for a long time about giving it an official title, but eventually decided against it. He maintains the day-to-day running of things, ensures the guards are training as often as they should, makes sure everyone eats and has enough, and goes out of his way to not only ensure everyone a job, but a job they more or less like enough to continue doing for the rest of their lives.

Harper has taken over Medbay, she gets help from Clarke, whenever she’s free. And Nyko stops by once every other week or so to ensure things are still running smoothly. Monty and Raven worked like crazy to get a database put together so that all families could be reunited. Several having chosen to move to live together, others choosing to remain separated. Both of the elder Greens were the first of the Arkadians to move into the Dropship camp, and their babysitting skills meant that Jordan wasn’t being carried everywhere. 

When the idea was brought up that Hannah Green was willing to open and run a childcare facility Clarke and Bellamy, along with many of the other parents were completely on board. So much so that many of them took time after their shifts to work on building a separate facility that would allow them a place to be during the day. And then they’d fenced in a small piece of grassy yard next to the building that let the kids be outside and playing without getting in the way of everyday business.

Clarke and Abby have managed several successful negotiations, Abby’s medical skill and knowledge far surpassing Clarke’s, allows for many of the Clans to seek them out often. Dr. Jackson has also been a great deal of help when it comes to treating some of the more minor elements of the Grounders ailments.

And so now, as Clarke is waking up on her baby boy’s first birthday, she pauses to take a deep breath and soak up her life. Bellamy is nuzzled into the space between her neck and shoulder, still breathing deeply. One arm draped across her waist, and leg tangled tightly with hers, and it’s all Clarke can do, not to immediately wake him up and enjoy the quiet that is currently engulfing their home.

She can hear the occasional snuffle from the corner, and knows that Jake is still sleeping soundly as well. The tarp in the corner makes a small crinkling sound as a draft blows through their small home. It’s mainly functioning as a door to the outside as Bellamy has started working on a few additions to their home, but hasn’t had as much time to work on them as he’d like. She doesn’t want to over work him either, but she knows that after the day is over when she tells him her own private news that he’ll start working double time to get it up and finished as quick as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all folks!
> 
> Day 23 of 31


End file.
